In February 2023, Seattle became the first US jurisdiction to explicitly ban caste discrimination. Eight months later, California’s governor vetoed a state-wide version of the same protection, calling it “unnecessary.” The gap between those two decisions is the story.
Seattle’s city council passed its caste-discrimination ordinance in February 2023, adding caste as a protected category alongside race, religion, and national origin, on a 6-1 vote. Fresno followed, becoming the second US jurisdiction to do the same. Then, in October 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed SB 403, a bill that would have made California the first US state to do the same, writing that existing categories like ancestry and national origin already covered the ground.
Why “ancestry” and “national origin” don’t cover it
Newsom’s veto message treats caste as adequately covered by categories built for something else: ancestry, national origin, religion, none of which name the specific mechanism caste uses. Caste is a hierarchy assigned at birth and enforced through community and family structures that travel with a diaspora population regardless of national origin or religion. A South Asian immigrant’s caste position doesn’t show up on an ancestry form, and two people from the same country, same religion, and same ethnic background can occupy entirely different positions in a caste hierarchy the veto treats as already legible under existing law.
The fight over SB 403 drew opposition from parts of the same South Asian population the bill was meant to protect, a pattern Equality Labs has described as a well-funded campaign arguing the bill would stigmatize South Asian Americans generally by naming caste as a live issue within the community, rather than a historical one confined to India.
Where this stands
Seattle and Fresno’s ordinances remain the only explicit local bans in the US. California’s veto means no US state currently has one. The fight has shifted from statehouse legislation to city-by-city ordinances and university and corporate policy fights, a slower, more fragmented path than a single state law would have been.
What the organizers say
Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Equality Labs, was a lead organizer and drafter behind the Seattle ordinance, introduced by Councilmember Kshama Sawant alongside South Asian community leaders. When it passed by a 6-1 council vote, Soundararajan wrote on X:
“Love has won over hate as Seattle has become the first in the nation to ban caste discrimination. We have braved rape threats, death threats, disinformation, and bigotry.”
That threat isn’t rhetorical framing. It’s the organizing reality behind why the Seattle-Fresno-SB403 gap looks the way it does: a win built against sustained opposition in one city, and a veto in the state where that same opposition campaign had more reach.
