By Lee Williams
SAF Investigative Journalism Project
Special to Liberty Park Press
California Attorney General Rob Bonta must be tired of seeing his name listed as a defendant in so many civil-rights lawsuits.
It’s now his wife’s turn, California State Assemblymember Mia Bonta, who appears to have the same disdain and lack of respect for Californians’ civil rights as her frequently sued husband.
Assemblymember Bonta recently introduced a state bill, AB 2624, which nearly everyone sees as a response to the iconic reporting of YouTuber Nick Shirley, who gained international fame for exposing how Democrats in Minnesota poured billions of tax-payer dollars into the Somali Community.
Assemblymember Bonta certainly doesn’t want anyone like Mr. Shirley to investigate anything in California, so she wants to criminalize such reporting regardless of its First Amendment protections.
“Individuals who provide immigrant support services including legal aid, humanitarian relief, case management, and advocacy are facing targeted harassment. This is not hypothetical,” Bonta said at an April 7 hearing, according to the New York Post.
Mr. Shirley’s response was quick and succinct.
“The enemy truly is within,” Shirley said in a press release Monday. “When our politicians would rather protect fraudsters and illegal migrants, it’s time for us to stand up or face mass oppression from the traitors who ‘rule’ over us.”
Assemblymember Bonta’s bill includes criminal penalties of up to a $50,000 fine and a year in a county jail or even longer sentences in a state prison if the published information results in “bodily harm.”
One of her few critics, California State Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a Republican representing state District 75, which includes San Diego, dubbed AB 2624 the Stop Nick Shirley Act, because of “the chilling effect it will have on free speech.”
“California Democrats are trying to intimidate citizen watchdog journalists and protect waste and fraud happening in far-Left-wing NGOs. Instead of fixing the fraud problems being uncovered, Sacramento politicians are trying to shut down the people exposing them. AB 2624 would allow activists and taxpayer-funded organizations to demand the removal of video evidence — even if it captures misconduct in plain view — and threatens journalists with massive financial penalties. That’s not about public safety — it’s about protecting powerful interests,” Assemblymember DeMaio said in a press release.
Takeaways
It does not take a legal expert to determine whether California Assemblymembers would pass a state law that directly violates the U.S. Constitution. Just look at how many current California laws violate the Second Amendment.
It’s also likely there are very few mainstream journalists willing to publicly oppose Ms. Bonta’s new bill. It also doubtful they would ever take any legal action if it became law. It’s an expensive process and journalists aren’t exactly swimming in cash. Besides, most journalists will likely support the legislation because of their politics.
What should concern everyone is what will follow AB 2624—what industry will California Democrats decide to shield next from public scrutiny, and what states will follow with their own similar legislation.
California’s massive anti-gun industry certainly comes to mind.
Can you imagine a similar state law banning reporting about San Diegans for Gun Violence Prevention or the state chapters of Demanding Moms, Brady or Giffords? Once AB 2624 is signed into law it’s almost guaranteed, as are similarly unconstitutional state laws in other blue states.
Assemblymember Bonta’s bill is unconstitutional on its face but once passed will become the first of many unjust decrees designed to stop the public from scrutinizing whatever the Dems want to keep secret.
Perhaps the Danish physicist, Niels Bohr, said it best: “The best weapon of a dictatorship is secrecy, but the best weapon of a democracy should be the weapon of openness.”
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