Legislative Session Officially Ends with 900+ Bills Signed Into Law 

The two-year legislative session is officially over, culminating in Newsom vetoing roughly 16 percent of the 1,100 bills sent to him by the legislature. Approximately 900 new laws will go into effect in January 2025.

While virtually all bills passed the state legislature with more than two-thirds votes, triggering the ability to override the governor's veto, the move would be unprecedented and unlikely, something that hasn’t happened in over 40 years.

Some notable CCC-championed bills signed include SB 1414, which will make the purchase of children under 16 for sex a felony, and SB 1001, banning the death penalty for intellectually disabled individuals. Newsom also signed a bill requiring school districts to limit or ban student cell phone use at school. 

Below are other notable bills the CCC is actively engaged on. Click on the bill number for a detailed analysis of each bill. 

Cultivating Strong and Healthy Families

AB 2085 Force Cities to Open Abortion Facilities (Bauer-Kahan – D) SIGNED

AB 2527/AB 2740 Limit Solitary Confinement and Increase Prenatal Care for Incarcerated Moms - (Bauer-Kahan – D/Waldron – R) SIGNED

SB 1090 Apply Early for Paid Family Leave (Durazo – D) SIGNED

AB 2670 Anti-Pregnancy Center Awareness Campaign (Schiavo – D) VETOED

Advancing Educational Excellence

AB 2377 Pupil Instruction: physical education accommodation: religious fasting (Rivas, L -D) SIGNED

SB 1244 Pupil Instruction: dual enrollment: college and career access pathways (Newman-D) SIGNED

SB 897 Pupil attendance: intradistrict attendance: school district of choice (Newman-D) SIGNED

AB 801 Student Privacy: online personal information (Patterson -R) SIGNED

AB 1796 Pupil Instruction: course offerings: parental notification (Alanis -R) SIGNED

AB 2179 Pupil Services: local apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs (Davies – R) SIGNED

Building Sustainable Communities

AB 2224 Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (Santiago – D) SIGNED

AB 2780 Carrier of Passengers Act of 2024 (McKinnor – D) SIGNED

AB 2835 Motels & Hotels publicly funded shelters (Gabriel – D) SIGNED

SB 242 California HOPE Trust Acct (Skinner – D) SIGNED

SB 379 Victim services (Umberg – D) SIGNED

SB 1193 eliminates leaded aviation gasoline (Menjivar – D) SIGNED

SB 1254 CalFresh: enrollment of former incarcerated (Becker – D) SIGNED

AB 541 Benzene testing in drinking water (Wood – D) SIGNED

World Day Against the Death Penalty

Oct. 10 will mark World Day Against the Death Penalty, a day to advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and to raise awareness of the conditions and the circumstances that affect prisoners with death sentences. This year is dedicated to challenging the misconception that the death penalty can make people and communities safer.

ClemencyCA.org is asking people to sign a letter granting clemency to the over 600 individuals who remain on death row in CA. 

Catholic Mobilizing Network also has resources for parishes, including social media graphics to use in conjunction with Respect Life Month. 

Governor Newsom has already dismantled death row in the state, so far transferring 100 men and all 20 women on death row into the prison’s general population.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

“There is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”,[1] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” CCC 2267

Eucharistic Solidarity and Reckoning with Racism

By Fr. Gregory Walgenbach, Diocese of Orange

Adapted from a Homily by Fr. Gregory Walgenbach for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 25, 2024

Towards the end of the summer I was among a group of pilgrims put together from the Diocese of Orange who spent three powerful and life-changing days in Selma, Montgomery, and Birmingham, Alabama. Among the highlights were visiting the parsonage (house) where Rev. Dr. King and his family lived during his time as Pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, the sites of the powerful organizing for justice of Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth at Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham and through the creation of the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, as well as the privilege of sitting at the feet of other ‘footsoldiers’ (so named for all the marching they did) for justice who walked and organized with Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, and others.  

We were able to walk on sacred ground, where blood had been spilled, and saints of the civil rights movement had walked. These people of courage spoke the truth in the face the gods of the country in which they were dwelling: white supremacy, the almighty dollar, greed and economic exploitation, a civilization of exclusion and exploitation and death rather than life.

Death in the form of lynching, bombings, cruelty, support and even eagerness for violence against blacks and other people of color (that is, those who could not become ‘white’). City commissioner Bull Connor was a bully who, along with wealthy whites ruling the city of Birmingham, deputized white folks into the enforcement of segregation and brutality. He was the one who released dogs and high powered fire hoses that ripped the skin off young people protesting. He refused to release the grip of his violent rule and when the people were able to elect a different man mayor he refused to leave office and set up a parallel city government for a time!

Novena for Mental Health Begins October 10

“Everyone who needs help should receive help.” This is the simple message that underscores the National Catholic Mental Health Campaign. The campaign was launched in 2023 in response to growing concerns in mental and behavioral health to raise awareness among Catholics nationwide on the many facets of mental health. In addition to raising awareness, the ongoing efforts of the initiative are to combat the stigmas associated with this issue and to advance wise, compassionate, and effective public policy in response to this growing crisis in our nation. 

World Mental Health Day is observed on October 10, and here in the United States, the USCCB will begin nine days of focused prayer, teaching, and actionable steps to engage more intentionally on mental health issues. While the campaign is a year-round effort, the novena will run October 10-18, concluding on the feast of Saint Luke, the patron of health care. 

Information and resources about the USCCB’s National Catholic Mental Health Campaign may be found at: https://www.usccb.org/mentalhealth. Catholic dioceses are encouraged to share the information with their parishes with a particular emphasis on Mental Health Sunday, October 13, as it falls during the nine-day renewal effort and is an opportunity to promote and support the efforts of local mental health programs.

Respect Life Month

Each October, the Catholic Church in the United States celebrates Respect Life Month.  As Catholics, we are called to cherish, defend, and protect those who are most vulnerable, from the beginning of life to its end, and at every point in between. During October, the Church asks us to reflect more deeply on the dignity of every human life.

The USCCB has resources, including graphics, available and will also host a Respect Life Novena Oct. 22-30. 

According to a prepared statement by the USCCB, Pope John Paul II’s words resonate today: “We are facing an enormous and dramatic clash between good and evil, death and life, the ‘culture of death’ and the ‘culture of life’ … we are all involved and we all share in it, with the inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life.”

You can also check in on the latest happenings in California on the public policy front by visiting the California Catholic Conference’s Reverence for Life page. 

Election Deadlines Approaching!

Election Day is less than a month away, and many deadlines that impact your ability to vote are rapidly approaching.