Gavin Newsom

Leading legal and political resistance to federal rollbacks

The Transportation Department published its final fuel-economy rule on September 28, cutting the 2031 fleetwide target to 34.9 miles per gallon from 50.4 mpg under Biden. The rule resets standards to model year 2022 levels and arrived as average U.S. gas prices sat just under $4.50 a gallon.

Updated 4 days ago

Signed SB 868 into law on Sept. 30, 2026

California renters and apartment dwellers can now plug small solar panels into wall outlets without utility permission. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the Plug and Play Solar Act on Sept. 30, legalizing 'balcony solar' systems up to 1,200 watts and making California the 10th state to do so.

Updated 6 days ago

In final year of term; expected 2028 presidential candidate

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed more than 20 AI-related bills in late September. The package includes a first-in-the-nation ban on automated firing without human sign-off and a ban on AI surveillance in workplace bathrooms. It also covers AI transparency, synthetic performer disclosure, customer service chatbots, and limits on AI in healthcare and the legal profession.

Updated 6 days ago

Signed AB 1267 into law on September 30, 2026

California had no minimum marriage age: a child could marry with a parent's signature and a judge's approval. Starting January 1, 2027, that ends — Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law setting 18 as the minimum marriage age, with no exceptions.

Updated Oct 3

Signed SB 895 into law on September 30, 2026; term ends January 2027

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 895 on September 30, 2026, putting a $7.5 billion science and health research bond before voters in the March 2028 primary. The measure creates the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, a state agency that would distribute grants and loans for biomedical, climate, wildfire prevention, agriculture, and public health research. It came on Newsom's last day to sign new laws before his term ends.

Updated Oct 3

Signed AB 2409 into law on Sept. 27, 2026

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law Sept. 27 that makes the state the first to bar public officials from issuing memecoins. It also stops crypto exchanges in California from listing tokens built around a public official's name or image.

Updated Oct 1

Signed the immigration enforcement package into law

California became the first state to tax private immigration detention centers when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a 25% levy and a package of companion laws on Sept. 29, escalating the state's fight with the Trump administration's deportation program. The laws also let Californians sue federal agents for constitutional violations, ban ICE from using electric shock gloves, and expand state investigations of detention facilities.

Updated Oct 1

Signed AB 1349 into law on September 27, 2026

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law banning the sale of concert and sports tickets that sellers don't actually own, a practice known as speculative ticketing or 'ghost tickets.' The law, Assembly Bill 1349, also prohibits using software to bypass venue limits and requires resale platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent such listings.

Updated Sep 28

Outgoing governor; leaves office January 2027

Gavin Newsom leaves office in January. In his final months, he signed 15 new laws expanding abortion access and LGBTQ protections in California.

Updated Sep 28

Signed AB 1130 into law

California's Fair Political Practices Commission can now fine influencers up to $5,000 per post when they fail to disclose that a political campaign paid them. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the measure into law in September 2026, giving the state's campaign watchdog enforcement power it lacked since disclosure rules took effect in 2023. Violations can also be referred to law enforcement as potential misdemeanors.

Updated Sep 24

Signed all seven bills, reversing his 2025 veto of a similar water disclosure measure

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed seven bills on Monday that force data center operators to pay for the power grid upgrades their facilities require. The laws also require operators to disclose projected water use, energy efficiency, and drought plans before local governments can approve new projects.

Updated Sep 22

Deciding whether to sign or veto AB 2305 by Sept 30, 2026

Private equity spent a decade buying into professional services partnerships in finance and medicine. California's Supreme Court just closed that door for law firms, approving a rule that bars private equity funds and hedge funds from owning or controlling legal practices in the state.

Updated Sep 22

Active governor

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law on September 21 that raises penalties for participating in sideshows, the illegal street stunt events that have disrupted Bay Area intersections for years. The law, Assembly Bill 1588, was authored by San Francisco Assemblymember Catherine Stefani and sponsored by Mayor Daniel Lurie.

Updated Sep 21

Committed to signing the state budget bill with the $1.5M appropriation

San Franciscans voted in June 2022 to guarantee free lawyers to domestic violence survivors. More than four years later, the city still hadn't funded the promised legal services. Now the state is stepping in with $1.5 million to pay for it.

Updated Sep 17

Signed the child safety package on Sept 10, 2026

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed 13 child-safety bills on Sept 10 that bar social media platforms from offering addictive features to users under 16. The laws target autoplay and algorithmic feeds built around a user's history and profile. They take effect January 1 unless courts block them.

Updated Sep 12

Signed the child safety package on September 10, 2026

Anthropic has stopped letting people under 18 use Claude. The change, posted in the company's support documentation, makes the AI assistant adults-only.

Updated Sep 11

Pushed for broader liability reform; criticized the deal he helped craft

A hard-won compromise to reshape California's wildfire liability system collapsed on the final day of the legislative session. The state Assembly never brought Senate Bill 492 to a vote, after PG&E and Southern California Edison warned the deal could push them into bankruptcy.

Updated Sep 4

Backing the acquisition

California lawmakers agreed to divert up to $125 million in climate bond money to buy Golden Gate Fields, the defunct 161-acre horse track along the East Bay shoreline in Albany and Berkeley. The deal, folded into the state budget bill, would hand the land to the East Bay Regional Park District for a public park.

Updated Sep 4

Serves as governor; signed the program extension into law in 2025

California's largest polluters began operating under a sharply tighter carbon cap on September 1. The amended Cap-and-Invest Program, previously called Cap-and-Trade, removes 118 million pollution allowances through 2030, shrinking the cap 11% each year this decade.

Updated Sep 2

Leaving office January 2027

Republicans haven't won a statewide race in California since Arnold Schwarzenegger's 2006 reelection. Today's gubernatorial primary could put them on the November ballot anyway.

Updated Jun 2

Backing the rail project as a state-funded priority through cap-and-trade revenue

California voters approved a bullet train in 2008 with a $33 billion price tag and promised to whisk passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles by 2020. Eighteen years later, no train has run, the price tag has climbed to roughly $231 billion, and the first segment—Merced to Bakersfield in the Central Valley—won't carry passengers until 2033.

Updated May 31

Led Democratic counter-redistricting effort

States usually redraw congressional districts once a decade, after the census. Texas just redrew its map four years early—and the U.S. Supreme Court has now cleared it for the 2026 midterm elections.

Updated May 31

Leading California lawsuit preparations

The EPA's February 2026 revocation of its 2009 endangerment finding ended federal greenhouse gas authority, but the rollbacks kept coming. By May 2026, the agency had also repealed mercury protections for coal plants, relaxed refrigerant deadlines for businesses, and sent a final rule to the White House budget office to erase power plant emissions standards.

Updated May 30

Declared state of emergency, requested federal declaration

The risk of a catastrophic explosion is gone, and 50,000 displaced residents were cleared to go home. OCFA Interim Chief TJ McGovern announced Monday that the BLEVE (vapor explosion) risk 'is now off the table' — the tank cooled from 100°F to 93°F and its crack released built-up pressure.

Updated May 25

Coordinating state response and personnel surge

A sailor crashed his boat on Santa Rosa Island ten days before Memorial Day and fired a flare gun for help; the flare lit the brush. By May 25, the fire had burned roughly 14,520 acres on one of the Channel Islands — the largest blaze ever recorded there.

Updated May 25

Plaintiff in Newsom v. Trump

The last time a president invoked the Insurrection Act to deploy federal troops in American cities was 1992, during the Los Angeles riots. President Trump has deployed over 10,000 National Guard troops and active-duty Marines to six cities since June 2025—without invoking that law. The Congressional Budget Office now reports the seven-month operation cost taxpayers $496 million, with ongoing deployments projected to add $93 million monthly.

Updated May 23

Leading state-level WHO engagement independent of federal withdrawal

The U.S. joined the WHO on June 14, 1948, three years after helping design the agency, and became the first to withdraw on January 22, 2026, ending 77 years of involvement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited the WHO's 'failures during the COVID-19 pandemic' and its inability to demonstrate independence from 'inappropriate political influence.' The U.S. left without paying between $130 million and $278 million in disputed dues.

Updated May 22

Supporting California's investigation

For decades, Western democracies debated whether to regulate social media platforms. The UK just stopped debating—and now the United States is joining the fight. After Grok, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, generated an estimated one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute posted directly to X, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic took action. On January 15, X announced it will geoblock Grok from creating images of people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where it's illegal. This came one day after California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an investigation into xAI, calling the platform 'a breeding ground for predators.' Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament that X is 'acting to ensure full compliance,' having removed over 600 accounts and censored 3,500 content items. The alternative: fines up to 10% of global revenue or a complete platform ban.

Updated May 21

Vowed to defend California's AI laws in court

The DOJ's AI Litigation Task Force began operations January 10, 2026 with one mission: kill state AI laws in federal court. Attorney General Pam Bondi's team, consulting with AI czar David Sacks, will challenge comprehensive AI regulations from California, Texas, and Colorado that President Trump's December executive order called unconstitutional burdens on interstate commerce.

Updated May 20

Leading state-level resistance to federal climate retreat

On January 7, 2026, Trump signed a memorandum directing US withdrawal from the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change—the 1992 treaty George H.W. Bush signed and the Senate unanimously ratified. The US is the first of 198 parties to exit. The UNFCCC underpins all international climate negotiations (unlike the Paris Agreement, which Trump also exited), and withdrawal takes effect one year from notification.

Updated May 19

Leading state response and rebuilding efforts

On January 7, 2025, two wildfires exploded across Los Angeles County with unprecedented speed. The Palisades Fire in the Santa Monica Mountains and the Eaton Fire in Altadena spread at the rate of three football fields per minute, driven by Santa Ana winds gusting to 100 mph. Within hours, 200,000 people fled their homes. The fires killed at least 31 people directly, with researchers estimating 440 total deaths including those from heart and lung conditions aggravated by smoke and stress. By the time containment came 24 days later, 16,000 structures were destroyed and $150 billion in losses tallied—making it the costliest disaster in U.S. history.

Updated May 19

Signed California's Phone-Free Schools Act in September 2024

January 2026 accelerated the school cellphone crackdown. New Jersey signed a statewide ban for 2026-27, Michigan passed legislation for fall 2026, and Kansas introduced bipartisan Senate Bill 302 backed by 30 senators. What began with France's 2018 experiment now spans 37 states plus D.C., up from 35+ just weeks earlier.

Updated May 19

Leading CalRx state insulin program

On January 1, 2026, nonprofit Civica Rx launched insulin glargine pens at $55 a box; California debuted its CalRx-branded insulin the same day at the same price. Both undercut branded products by up to 90%: no insurance forms, no rebates, no hidden markups, just one transparent price for anyone, in a market three pharmaceutical giants control with a 90% share.

Updated May 19

Second term, in office since 2019

California raised its minimum wage to $16.90 on January 1, 2026, and closed the loophole on its failed 2014 plastic bag ban. These are the latest moves in a decades-long experiment testing whether aggressive regulation can coexist with economic growth.

Updated May 19

Managing state emergency response to atmospheric river and coordinating burn scar evacuations

A Christmas Day atmospheric river dumped up to 12 inches of rain on Southern California's mountains, triggering mudslides that buried roads in Wrightwood and forced helicopter rescues from rooftops. More than 120 emergency responders rescued residents trapped in vehicles and homes overnight Christmas Eve.

Updated May 16

Signed California’s SB 53; effectively created the template New York builds on

New York just told the biggest AI labs: if something goes seriously wrong, you don't get to bury it. Under the RAISE Act, large "frontier AI" developers must publish a safety approach and report "critical harm" incidents to the state within 72 hours after determining one occurred. First violations carry civil penalties capped at $1M; later violations, $3M—far below the bill's June penalty structure.

Updated May 15

Signed SB 237 (Chapter 118, Statutes of 2025), reshaping the permitting backdrop

The CRC–Berry all-stock combination is now in the paperwork-and-plumbing phase. CRC's post-close 8-K confirms Berry is a wholly owned subsidiary and discloses an amendment raising CRC's elected credit-facility commitments to $1.46 billion. CRC has 71 days to publish pro forma financials for the combined company.

Updated May 15

Overseeing the nation’s most ambitious state AI regime and likely top legal target.

Donald Trump just turned AI regulation into a states' rights knife fight. His new executive order creates a Justice Department "AI Litigation Task Force" to attack state AI laws. Washington can threaten to withhold $42 billion in broadband funds from states that don't comply.

Updated May 11

Leading legal and political resistance to Trump’s militarization

Donald Trump has quietly turned long stretches of the southern border into de facto military bases. Under a new system of National Defense Areas, soldiers can stop migrants, hold them, and help prosecutors charge them as trespassers on military land.

Updated May 11

Leading state-level resistance to Trump's proposed offshore drilling off California coast

Donald Trump's second-term energy agenda has moved from a single Gulf auction to a full-scale offshore transformation. The December 10 Gulf lease sale—81.2 million acres at a 12.5% royalty rate, generating $279.4 million—was just the opening move. By year's end, the administration had proposed a sweeping 2026-2031 leasing plan covering 1.27 billion acres off California, Florida and Alaska, and scheduled a second Gulf sale for March 11, 2026. It simultaneously halted all five major East Coast offshore wind projects, citing national security risks; Shell-INEOS's early January oil discovery south of New Orleans showed the industry's bet on deepwater Gulf prospects.

Updated May 10