California Wrote a Law Named After a Journalist. He Is Suing to Kill It.

California did not just pass a privacy rule. It wrote AB 2624 — critics call it the Stop Nick Shirley Act — then Gov. Newsom signed it. The law expands Safe at Home to immigration-support nonprofit workers and lets them issue a written demand blocking online publication of their identifying information. Penalties can hit $4,000. Operative date: Oct 1, 2027.

Independent journalist Nick Shirley spent months probing alleged fraud at immigration-service nonprofits. Fifteen days after AG Rob Bonta publicly blasted his reporting, Assemblywoman Mia Bonta — the AG's wife — introduced the bill. Shirley and America First Legal filed Shirley v. Bonta on Sept 4, 2026 in E.D. Cal., arguing the statute is a content-based First Amendment chokehold on investigative speech: one written demand becomes a kill switch for accountability journalism.

If the state can invent a protected class for the people you are investigating, and hand them a takedown button, press freedom is conditional. That is the fight.

Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nick-shirley-sues-california-over-stop-nick-shirley-act