Rob Bonta

Money Moves

Leading multi-state lawsuit to block the merger

For two decades, federal law has barred any single company from owning television stations that reach more than 39% of American households. On March 20, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) waived that rule for the first time, clearing Nexstar Media Group's $6.2 billion acquisition of rival broadcaster Tegna. The combined company now owns 265 stations in 44 states, reaching roughly 80% of U.S. TV households — more than double the legal cap.

Updated Mar 20

Rule Changes

Overseeing California's expanding privacy enforcement apparatus

California passed the first comprehensive state privacy law in 2018. Eight years later, twenty states have followed, creating a regulatory patchwork that now covers roughly half the American population. Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island's laws took effect January 1, 2026, joining a wave of amendments and enforcement actions that force every consumer-facing app to reckon with data collection practices.

Updated Feb 11

Rule Changes

Pursuing civil enforcement against xAI over Grok

French prosecutors raided X's Paris offices on February 3, 2026, and summoned Elon Musk for questioning—a first for a major social media platform owner in Europe. What began as a complaint about biased algorithms in January 2025 has expanded into a criminal probe covering child sexual abuse material, sexually explicit deepfakes, and Holocaust denial, with the investigation now encompassing X's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok.

Updated Feb 3

Rule Changes

Filed en banc petition January 16; mandate stayed pending decision

The Ninth Circuit just struck down California's ban on openly carrying guns in urban areas, ruling that a law affecting 95% of the state violates the Second Amendment. Judge Lawrence VanDyke wrote that open carry was widely protected at America's founding—exactly the kind of historical analysis the Supreme Court demanded in its 2022 Bruen decision. The ruling creates a circuit split with the Second Circuit, which said states can ban one form of carry as long as they allow the other.

Updated Jan 21

Rule Changes

Leading California investigation into xAI

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 are taking 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 Jan 15

Rule Changes

Preparing legal defense of state AI laws

The DOJ's AI Litigation Task Force began operations on January 10, 2026, with one mission: kill state AI laws in federal court. California, Texas, and Colorado passed comprehensive AI regulations throughout 2025—transparency requirements, discrimination protections, governance mandates. President Trump's December executive order called them unconstitutional burdens on interstate commerce. Now Attorney General Pam Bondi's team will challenge them, consulting with AI czar David Sacks on which laws to target first.

Updated Jan 12

Rule Changes

Preparing litigation over California’s authority and federal rollbacks

On December 3, 2025, President Donald Trump unveiled a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposal to slash Biden‑era Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, cutting the projected 2031 light‑duty fleet target from about 50.4 miles per gallon to roughly 34.5 mpg and phasing in only 0.25–0.5% annual increases instead of the 2% per year previously planned. The rule would also bar automakers from trading efficiency credits after 2028, a change that especially hurts EV‑focused companies that sell credits to gasoline‑heavy manufacturers.

Updated Jan 2

Rule Changes

Leading 20-state lawsuit against $100,000 H-1B fee

On December 29, 2025, the Department of Homeland Security formally published its final rule replacing the H-1B lottery with wage-weighted selection in the Federal Register. Starting February 27, 2026, a software engineer offered $150,000 (Level IV wage) gets four entries in the pool; one offered $65,000 (Level I) gets one entry—an 8.5% selection chance versus the prior 25% random odds. The change targets fraud: 758,994 registrations competed for 85,000 slots in FY 2024, with 408,891 duplicate submissions for the same people, up 140% from the year before. Shell companies flooded the system; Disney laid off American IT staff and made them train H-1B replacements paid 40% less. On December 24, a federal judge upheld the separate $100,000 H-1B fee Trump imposed in September, rejecting a U.S. Chamber of Commerce lawsuit.

Updated Dec 29, 2025

Rule Changes

Co-lead plaintiff; publicly leading the state coalition challenge

The Trump administration didn’t just tighten H‑1B visas. It put a $100,000 toll booth on “new” petitions—and dared employers to pay up. Now twenty states are trying to blow up that toll booth in federal court, calling it an illegal end-run around Congress.

Updated Dec 13, 2025