A Hayward judge ruled Friday that California’s $3 billion stem cell initiative does not violate state law, a decision that, if upheld on appeal, would free up funds for the controversial research program that have been on hold for more than a year.

This is a significant legal victory in a crucial case for the people of this state,” said Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose office represented the stem cell institute at a trial of the lawsuits earlier this year. “In passing Proposition 71, voters made a decision to put California in the vanguard of a scientific movement that holds tremendous promise for advancing public health.”

It was stalled by two legal challenges, later consolidated, that claimed the initiative had entrusted billions in taxpayer money to an independent grant-making agency riddled with conflicts of interest and free of meaningful control by elected state officials.

But Alameda County Superior Court Judge Bonnie Sabraw held that the structure of the grant-making agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, did not violate state law.

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