The “Stop Nick Shirley Act” is a blatantly unconstitutional legislation that violates the freedom of the press.

That’s why I am asking the Civil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice to intervene to block its implementation.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the controversial invoice, AB 2624, into legislation despite realizing that there were severe objections to its violations of the First Amendment.

Nick Shirley testifies during a House Judiciary subcommittee listening to on public funds abuse on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP) AP

Proponents say it protects immigrants by shielding nonprofits that serve immigrants communities from supposed harassment.

What AB 2624 actually does is protect these organizations from scrutiny, despite the reality that many of them obtain public cash. 

Specifically, Section 6218.19 of the laws says:

“(b)(1) A program participant, or an particular person, entity, or group licensed to act on their behalf, may make a written demand to a individual, enterprise, or affiliation to not publicly submit or publicly show, disclose, or distribute on the Internet the private info or picture of the program participant. …

“(b)(4) A program participant whose personal information or image is made public as a result of a failure to honor a demand made pursuant to paragraph (1), or any individual, entity, or organization authorized to act on their behalf, may bring an action seeking injunctive or declarative relief in any court of competent jurisdiction. If a jury or court finds that a violation has occurred, it may grant injunctive or declarative relief and shall award the successful plaintiff court costs and reasonable attorneys fees.”

Independent journalist Nick Shirley speaks during a roundtable dialogue in the State Dining Room of the White House on Wednesday, October 8, 2025, in Washington, DC. The Trump administration held the roundtable to talk about the anti-fascist Antifa motion after signing an govt order designating it as a “domestic terrorist organization.” (Getty Images North America) Getty Images

Even after we raised preliminary issues about attacks on free speech and journalists, the Democrats doubled down on attacking the First Amendment by amending the invoice to take away exemptions for journalists under the California Shield Law.

Here’s how AB 2624 will play out in actual life.  An investigative journalist like Nick Shirley gets video of a phony day care heart defrauding taxpayers, but the scammer working the heart palms him a word demanding the video not be shared publicly. If the journalist posts it, he has violated state legislation and is topic to pricey court docket orders and fines.

That’s why when the invoice was first launched, I nicknamed it the “Stop Nick Shirley Act.”

Shirley drew consideration to the drawback of fraud among Minnesota nonprofit teams, and he came to California to examine further. 

That’s when Democrats determined to cease him.

Instead of fixing rampant waste, fraud, and abuse, Newsom and his occasion are making an attempt to punish the individuals exposing it. In so doing, they are blatantly violating our First Amendment freedom of speech rights.

Last week, I called on the governor to veto the invoice, but now that he signed it into legislation in a hurry, I will proceed to battle it utilizing the authorized system.

As a first step, I will ask the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division to assessment the legislation and intervene against it in the courts. The division, under California’s own Harmeet Dhillon, is at the moment difficult a quantity of California state legal guidelines and insurance policies in court docket for violating constitutional rights.

If the DOJ can’t set up standing, then we must wait until AB 2624 is weaponized against a journalist and then wage a prolonged (and costly) court docket battle to overturn AB 2624 and restore our First Amendment rights.

The reality is that Newsom and California Democrats have a unhealthy file of repeatedly imposing unconstitutional legal guidelines, only to be stopped by the US DOJ and the courts. Of course, the harm is already finished — because while we battle in court docket, our constitutional rights are being infringed upon.

Newsom and his occasion know the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” is unconstitutional, but they are making an attempt to sluggish down investigations into the large fraud issues they have allowed in state and native authorities packages.

It is clear that they are making an attempt to conceal the true extent of the fraud issues we have in California — and how they profit politically, from not only the fraud but the far-left teams that pushed for the Stop Nick Shirley Act to be handed.

Carl DeMaio is a member of the California Assembly and chairman of Reform California.