Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s controversial “Stop Nick Shirley Act” into law Saturday, which critics say will suppress investigative journalism in the state.
The post Newsom Signs the ‘Stop Nick Shirley Act’ into Law, a Blow to Investigative Reporting Say Critics appeared first on Breitbart.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s controversial “Stop Nick Shirley Act” into law Saturday, which critics say will suppress investigative journalism in the state.
Newsom, however, won’t be around to officially field any First Amendment court challenges of Assembly Bill 2624. The law does not take effect until October 1, 2027, nearly ten months after the northern California Democrat has left office because of term limits.
The bill expands the state’s “Safe at Home” program to employees of nonprofits that purportedly help people navigating the U.S. immigration system.
What that could mean, critics say, is investigative reporters are banned from seeking to interview workers whose organizations are suspected of fraud.
Mia Bonta, the Almeda Democrat who introduced the bill back in February has rejected that interpretations, saying the law does not conflate legitimate journalism with the doxxing targeted by Safe at Home, the California Post reported.
“Our immigrant service providers are living in fear because of extremists looking to demonize the work that they do and the populations they serve,” the assemblywoman said Saturday. “That is an intolerable consequence of the anti-immigrant rhetoric that exists right now.”
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The bill penalizes anyone who distributes or posts information or “images” of immigration workers it says “incites violence or threats” with penalties that range from $10,000 to $50,000 and sentences ranging from one year in jail to state prison time.
Critics, like Republican Assemblyman Carl DeMaio from San Diego have countered that the measure is simply meant to intimidate people “trying to shine light on bad behavior.”
DeMaio coined the nicknamed the law the “Stop Nick Shirley Act.”
The Safe at Home program already covered certain classes of people, including domestic violence survivors, elder abuse victims and reproductive and gender-affirming health care workers by “providing substitute mailing addresses for people considered particularly vulnerable to targeted attacks and violent threat,” the Post reported.
Shirley, an independent journalist and YouTuber, has made viral videos following immigrant workers and accusing them of fraud, particularly incidences involving day nonprofits in the Somali community in metropolitan Minneapolis.
The young journalist has criticized AB 2624, alleging it was created only after he “exposed widespread fraud in immigrant communities” in California and Minnesota.
Shirley had traveled to San Diego following the viral success of videos he produced about Minnesota early in the year.
Back in February, Newsom said that Somali daycare providers there were “under siege” following Shirley’s arrival.
However, it was Shirley who was “under siege” on Wednesday when he was interrupted while conducting an interview outside the California State Capitol in Sacramento.
That’s when Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, can be seen baring into the encounter and held up a up a printed flyer and asked: “Did you guys hear that Nick Shirley has a small penis allegedly?”
“The episode is an awkward backdrop” for the Stop Nick Shirley bill “whose supporters say is designed to combat harassment and doxxing,” the Post wrote, also reporting that Schanz earns $17,319 a month in taxpayer-funded compensation.
Multiple complaints have since been filed against the aide with the legislature’s human resources department.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
