California Governor Gavin Newsom just went to war.
Newsom took the gloves off after facing a massive scandal.
And Nesom enacted one nefarious plot to silence the man who exposed the fraud.
What AB 2624 Actually Does
Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2624 into law recently, a measure authored by Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D-Oakland) that expands California’s Safe at Home program to employees of nonprofits that provide services to people navigating the immigration system.
The law does not take effect until October 1, 2027, which is conveniently after Newsom leaves office due to term limits.
Under the bill, covered organizations can demand that individuals not publish video recordings or personal images of their employees online. If someone publishes that footage anyway and a covered worker claims it caused fear or led to threats, the publisher faces a minimum $4,000 civil fine plus the legal fees of the organization suing them. Breitbart reported that separate criminal provisions carry fines ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 and potential jail or state prison time for distribution of information or images deemed to incite violence or threats.
Supporters say the law shields immigration workers from doxxing and targeted harassment. Critics say it hands a legal weapon to any taxpayer-funded nonprofit that wants to shut down the journalist asking inconvenient questions about where the money goes.
Assemblymember Carl DeMaio (R-San Diego) coined the bill’s now-famous nickname. “AB 2624 can only be described as the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act’ — a bill designed to silence citizen journalists exposing fraud and abuse of taxpayer dollars,” DeMaio said.
And he did not stop there. After Newsom signed it, DeMaio announced he was formally asking the US Department of Justice to intervene. “I’m asking the US DOJ to intervene immediately to block this blatantly unconstitutional law from taking effect!” DeMaio posted on X.
He told the New York Post the pattern from Sacramento has grown impossible to ignore. “I ultimately believe that this has to go to court because clearly our politicians don’t give a d*** about our First Amendment rights. But this is a bad pattern of behavior,” DeMaio said.
California Senator Tony Strickland also pushed back hard. “Today, Governor Newsom quietly signed Assembly Bill 2624, which has been dubbed the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act.’ I spoke out against it earlier this week. I’m concerned it could have a chilling effect on investigative journalism and protected speech,” Strickland posted on X. He added: “I do believe this law will be ruled unconstitutional. It violates the First Amendment. However, someone’s going to have to challenge it.”
Who Is Nick Shirley, and Why Does Sacramento Want Him Stopped
Nick Shirley is an independent journalist and YouTuber who built a national following by doing something California’s political class finds intolerable: showing up with a camera at government-funded organizations and asking where the money goes.
His videos exposing alleged fraud at immigrant-run daycares and hospice facilities in Minnesota went viral in late 2025, drawing the attention of Governor Newsom and President Donald Trump. His subsequent work in California targeted what he described as rampant fraud inside Medicaid-funded nonprofits and hospice operations.
Shirley put the stakes plainly. “This bill will protect NGOs, nonprofits, legal offices, healthcare facilities and ‘learing’ centers who provide services to immigrants. If an immigration service provider gives you a piece of paper saying you cannot publish your video, you may be fined $4,000 and have to pay for their legal fees,” Shirley said.
But here is the detail that should make every Californian paying taxes sit up straight. The bill was introduced by Mia Bonta, who is married to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. The attorney general is the state official whose office is supposed to prosecute fraud. Shirley has alleged on air that Rob Bonta attempted to take credit for exposing hospice fraud in California — fraud Shirley says he uncovered first through his own reporting.
Neither Mia Bonta nor Rob Bonta responded to Fox News Digital when it sought comment on the bill. That silence, from a sitting assemblymember who authored a law generating national attention and an attorney general whose job description includes protecting the public from fraud, is its own kind of answer.
The California Senate passed the bill 30 to 10 along party lines, with all 10 Republican senators voting against it. The Assembly concurred in Senate amendments 59 to 19 before the bill went to Newsom’s desk.
It is also worth noting what happened outside the California State Capitol in the days before Newsom signed the bill. Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, allegedly barged into a sidewalk interview Shirley was conducting and held up a printed flyer reading, “Allegedly Nick Shirley Has a Small Penis. Prove Me Wrong.” Schanz then asked passersby, “Did you guys hear that Nick Shirley has a small penis allegedly?”
Schanz pulls down $17,319 a month — $207,828 a year — in taxpayer-funded compensation, making him a senior government employee, not a random street heckler. Multiple complaints were subsequently filed against Schanz with the legislature’s human resources department. Shirley alleged that Schanz used public resources to print the flyers, though that specific claim has not been independently confirmed.
The spectacle created an awkward backdrop for a law whose supporters insist is all about protecting people from harassment.
Carve-outs were eventually granted for journalists after widespread backlash against an earlier version of the bill that critics said would have criminalized the kind of undercover reporting Shirley has been doing.
What California Just Told Every Citizen Journalist in America
The free speech principle at stake here is not complicated. If a nonprofit or legal clinic receives hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to provide immigration services, the people funding that operation — meaning ordinary Californians — have every right to know what is happening inside those buildings.
AB 2624 does not protect privacy in any meaningful sense. It protects opacity. It raises the legal and financial cost of asking questions about public money, which is exactly the kind of government behavior the First Amendment was designed to prevent.
And the conflict of interest woven into this law is staggering. The wife of the state’s chief law enforcement officer — the man whose office is supposed to pursue fraud — authored legislation that makes it harder to expose fraud in organizations her husband’s office is supposed to be watching. That is not a coincidence. That is Sacramento doing what Sacramento does.
The law does not take effect for more than a year, which gives courts and the federal government time to weigh in. DeMaio has already called on the DOJ to act. Strickland has predicted a federal judge will eventually strike the law down.
But the message Newsom sent by signing it is already out there. California just told every citizen journalist in the country that if they show up with a camera at a taxpayer-funded organization and ask the wrong questions, the state will give that organization a legal club to beat them with.
The same state government that lectures the country about press freedom and democracy just handed immigration nonprofits the power to demand video be taken down and sue the people who refuse. The same political class that says it opposes harassment sent a senior aide to wave a crude sign at a journalist on a public sidewalk outside the state Capitol.
And the governor who signed this bill will be out of office before a single fine is ever issued under it, leaving someone else to field the First Amendment lawsuits his signature invited.
That is not governing. That is Sacramento protecting its friends, silencing its critics, and making sure the next Nick Shirley thinks twice before pointing a camera at a government-funded operation that has something to hide.
The fight over this law is not over. But the fact that it got signed at all tells you exactly who California’s Democrat machine is working for — and it is not the taxpayers writing the checks.
Sources: New York Post, August 22, 2026; Townhall, August 23, 2026; Breitbart, August 23, 2026; Capitalism Institute, August 24, 2026; American Greatness, August 24, 2026; California Globe; Fox 5 San Diego; Gateway Pundit; Lassen News; USA Herald