California AB 2624 (“Stop Nick Shirley Act”)

California, United StatesCalifornia AB 2624 (2026)Updated September 4, 2026

100%became law
Bad for your rightsLaw
  1. Introduced
  2. Passed House
  3. Passed Senate
  4. Became Law

Signed into law; challenged in federal court

Shields immigration-support workers' addresses but also expands liability over publishing their names, images, employment details, and other broadly defined personal information.

Latest update

Nick Shirley filed a federal First Amendment challenge

The bill

Read the full billOfficial bill record

Key facts

Where
California, United States
Bill number
California AB 2624 (2026)
Status
Law
Introduced
February 20, 2026
Address-confidentiality program becomes operative
October 1, 2027
Threat
Medium
Last update
September 4, 2026

Topics

Free SpeechPrivacyCensorship

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What it does

AB 2624 creates an address-confidentiality program for immigration-support providers, employees, volunteers, and members of their households beginning October 1, 2027. It also creates civil claims and potential injunctions when someone knowingly publishes a covered person's personal information or image with the specific intent to incite imminent great bodily harm or make a threat that causes an objectively reasonable fear for personal safety. Damages can be at least $4,000. A separate provision makes it unlawful to post the information with the specific intent that another person imminently use it to commit a violent crime or threat likely to occur. The law defines personal information broadly, including names, physical descriptions, photographs or video, employment information, addresses, phone numbers, identification numbers, and financial information.

What’s at stake

Protecting home addresses from credible threats is legitimate, but this law reaches names, images, employment details, and other information used in journalism and public oversight. Its intent requirements make the enacted text narrower than claims that it simply bans filming or criticism. Even so, broad definitions combined with private lawsuits and injunctions can make journalists and citizens hesitate before documenting organizations that receive public attention or money.

Our take

California could protect people from threats and conceal their home addresses without creating a wider litigation risk around names, images, and investigative material. The state should punish genuine threats and incitement while drawing an unmistakable line around lawful journalism, criticism, and public-interest investigation.

Timeline

  1. Nick Shirley filed a federal First Amendment challengeLatest

  2. Signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom and chaptered as Chapter 117

  3. Passed the Senate 30 to 10

  4. Passed the Assembly 57 to 19

  5. Introduced in the California Assembly

The record

Sponsor

Mia Bonta (D-Oakland)

Votes

  • Assembly: Final concurrence (59 to 19), August 19, 2026
  • Senate: Final passage (30 to 10), August 18, 2026

Legal challenges

Shirley v. Bonta

Federal challenge filed September 4, 2026; no order blocking the law