California Likely To Pass A Flood of Bad New Laws

San Francisco Skyline

By Shari Rendall | August 9, 2018

Sanctuary-state California isn’t about to stop with just the bad laws they already have. The Golden State’s legislature is scheduled to wrap up its regular session on August 31. And the closer that deadline gets, the more reams of awful new legislation can be expected to pour out of Sacramento, adding one new reckless policy on top of another to benefit illegal aliens at the expense of law-abiding citizens.

Here are some of the worst highlights (or lowlights) to watch for in the next few weeks, all of which have passed either the Senate (SB) or the Assembly (AB) and are now being considered by the other chamber:

  • SB 183: aims to keep Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal immigration authorities out of and away from courthouses. It does this by creating a “privilege against civil arrest,” for anyone “attending, or going to or from, a courthouse or court proceeding,” which if violated allows the state’s attorney general to sue for contempt of court and false imprisonment. This is a blatantly unconstitutional attempt by the state to try to regulate a federal agency and trump federal law, and also sets up the possibility of dangerous confrontations between federal and local law enforcement personnel. The Senate passed a broader version back on January 29 that applied to all state and local buildings and the Assembly hadn’t acted on it until August 6, when they amended it to cover only courthouses. The newly-amended bill appears modeled on a courthouse bill from New York, a clear sign of the open-borders crowd coordinating to push this issue. The Assembly referred the amended bill back to its Appropriations Committee on August 7.
  • AB 222: downgrades the crime of using false identity documents from a felony to a crime that can be charged as either a felony or a misdemeanor, and reduces the maximum legal sentence from 5 years to 3 years in prison. This only serves to encourage both identity theft and employment fraud even more. The bill could come up for a final Senate floor vote at any time.
  • SB 691: adds immigration status to the current list of characteristics for which someone can claim “discrimination” in postsecondary education, opening up both public and private colleges to big-money lawsuits by illegal aliens (and unscrupulous attorneys). On August 6, the Assembly referred the bill back to its Appropriations Committee.
  • AB 2184: allows the use of Individual Taxpayer Identification Numbers (“ITINs”) and California driver’s licenses rather than Social Security Numbers to apply for business licenses. California has officially issued driver’s licenses to illegal aliens since 2015, while ITINs are used overwhelmingly by illegal aliens. The bill could be taken up for a final Senate floor vote at any time.
  • AB 2732: requires employers to provide new hires with a “worker bill of rights” in a language they understand prior to verifying their employment eligibility. California already severely restricts employers from using E-Verify, and this makes attempting to hire legal workers even harder, directly undermining federal law. The bill could be taken up for a final Senate floor vote at any time.

If history is any guide, some or all of these bills could be rammed through at the last minute, even on the last day of session, without much scrutiny, and then happily rubber-stamped by Governor Jerry Brown (D). And California will continue to go from bad to worse.