State lawmakers in Sacramento introduced 2,350 bills this year. Of those, about one-third survived the gauntlet of hearings, compromises and votes in the Democratic-dominated Legislature and made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
On Monday night, Newsom finished going through the stack. He signed 794 and vetoed 123. Here are 10 of the most high-profile bills Newsom signed into law. Most take effect Jan. 1.
1) ICE: Senate Bill 627, the “No Secret Police Act,” by Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, bans law enforcement officers from wearing face masks, except clear shields and other limited exceptions. The ACLU and other supporters say secret masked police are common in authoritarian countries, not democracies. Opponents, led by police groups, say masks are needed to protect officers from death threats. The Trump administration has told ICE to ignore the law, which may end up in court.
2) Climate Change: Lawmakers reauthorized California’s “cap and trade” law through 2045. The landmark measure, first signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006, requires factories, power plants, oil refineries and other large polluters to buy credits for each ton of greenhouse gases they emit and allows the credits to be sold, creating an incentive to cut emissions, which have been falling. The program generates about $4 billion a year. Newsom and lawmakers earmarked $1 billion a year of that for the state’s beleaguered high-speed rail project.
3) Guns: Assembly Bill 1127, by Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, D-Encino, prohibits firearms dealers from selling any gun that can be “easily converted by hand or with common household tools” into a fully automatic weapon. Glocks, a type of popular handgun, aren’t mentioned by name. But they are banned because the new Glock design allows people to modify it easily with a small piece of plastic that can be 3-D printed to turn it into a fully automatic weapon. Democrats said the law is a commonsense safety measure to reduce mass shootings. Opponents, led by the National Rifle Association, say it violates the Second Amendment and have promised to sue.
4) Pets: Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-Milpitas, wrote AB 867, which bans cat declawing in California. The process, which began in the 1950s, is sometimes used by people to reduce cats scratching furniture or people. But animal welfare groups note it involves amputating cats’ toes beyond the third digit, often causing pain and behavioral changes. Several other states and many countries have prohibited it, urging cat owners to trim nails instead. Newsom also signed three bills to more tightly regulate puppy mills.
5) Immigration: Amid an increase in deportations during the Trump administration, AB 495 by Assemblywoman Celeste Rodriguez, D-Arleta, allows parents to designate a family friend or relative as caregiver if they are deported, to make medical and school decisions for their children. The bill was supported by immigrants’ rights groups and opposed by the California Family Council and other conservative groups who said it opens a loophole to unvetted adults without background checks or court oversight.
6) Public Transit: Bay Area transit agencies, including BART and AC Transit, are teetering on the verge of financial ruin because more people are working from home since the pandemic. With SB 63, Democratic leaders provided them a $750 million emergency state loan and allowed them to ask Bay Area voters in November 2026 to raise sales taxes 1% in San Francisco and half a cent in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. If approved by voters that ballot measure would generate $1 billion a year for transit over 14 years. Newsom also signed SB 79, by Wiener, which overrides local zoning laws to allow taller, denser housing projects near transit hubs such as light rail, subways and bus stops with dedicated lanes.
7) Ridesharing: Firms like Uber and Lyft will be able to unionize in California with this major compromise between top Democrats, labor unions and the app-based giants. Under the bill, AB 1340, by Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, hundreds of thousands of drivers will now be able to bargain for better wages and benefits. To placate the rideshare firms, Newsom signed a separate bill that slashes their insurance requirements for accidents.
8) Artificial Intelligence: California hit AI chatbot companies with some limited safety regulations this year after a rash of youth suicides in other states. SB 243, co-authored by State Sen. Josh Becker, D-Menlo Park, requires firms to have publicly-accessible “protocols” to prevent chat-generated content about suicide. They also must to remind users that they’re interacting with artificial intelligence, encourage them to take a break after three hours, and take “reasonable measures” to prevent chatbots from encouraging kids to behave sexually. Tech industry groups opposed the bill.
9) Schools: California will have a first-in-the-nation watchdog to prevent antisemitism in public schools with Newsom’s signature of AB 715 from Assemblyman Rick Zbur, D-Los Angeles. Under it, school districts are also required to investigate and take corrective action when teaching content is discriminatory. The bill was backed by Jewish-American advocacy groups and fiercely opposed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations and educators groups, who said it would chill classroom discussion of Israel and Palestine.
10) Reparations: Newsom signed SB 518, from State Sen. Akilah Weber Pierson, D-San Diego, to create a state office called the Bureau for Descendants of American Slavery to determine whether someone is the descendant of a slave. He vetoed five other bills that would have provided preference in university admissions, business licenses, and other benefits to the descendants of enslaved people. Civil rights groups including the NAACP supported the measures. A UC poll in 2023 found that by a margin of 59-28% Californians oppose the state paying cash reparations to the descendants of slaves.