A California bill that would let descendants of slavery bypass the state’s affirmative action ban when applying to college has passed the state Assembly and is now headed to the Senate.

“This bill is not about race,” Democratic Assemblyman Isaac Bryan insisted after his bill won passage along a party-line vote on Wednesday.

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The bill would not apply to all black college applicants in California, only to those who could show they were direct descendants of slavery.

For example, someone such as former President Barack Obama would not qualify because his father emigrated from Africa after slavery was abolished in the United States, Assembly Judiciary Committee staff said.

The committee staff also noted that some people who identify as white have learned from DNA tests that they are of African descent and may qualify under the bill.

Bryan, who represents parts of Los Angeles, has said the bill would help rectify past and current discrimination at universities. He added that the bill would allow, not force, colleges and universities to factor in whether a student was a descendant of slavery.

“For decades, universities gave preferential admission treatment to donors, and their family members, while others tied to legacies of harm were ignored and at times outright excluded,” Bryan told the Associated Press. “We have a moral responsibility to do all we can to right those wrongs.”

The Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative nonprofit organization, told the San Francisco Chronicle that Bryan’s bill was aimed at restoring preferential treatment based on an applicant’s race, despite its “descendants of slavery” language.

“The idea that either [California’s] Proposition 209 or the [U.S. Constitution’s] equal protection clause would countenance intentional discrimination on the basis of ‘lineage’ or ‘ethnicity’ is preposterous,” Pacific Legal attorney Joshua Thompson said. “It’s like banning racial segregation in schools, then assigning students based on their grandparents’ surnames — it’s just Jim Crow with a thesaurus.”

In 1996, Californians voted for Proposition 209, a ballot measure that stops state colleges and universities from giving preferential treatment to applicants based on race, sex, or ethnicity.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court also outlawed affirmative action at colleges and universities nationwide, saying consideration of an applicant’s race or ethnicity is an act of racial discrimination. 

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority. “The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race.”

If the bill clears the state Senate and is signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), the Supreme Court could once again have the final say.

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While Newsom is yet to publicly comment on the bill, Bryan, the vice chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, said the governor has addressed the “legacy of slavery” in annual meetings with the caucus.

He also noted that Newsom signed a bill last fall that issued a formal apology for California’s role in slavery.