Nick Shirley walked into empty Minnesota daycares collecting millions in taxpayer money and posted the videos online.
Gavin Newsom just signed a law to make sure no one ever does that in California.
What he just signed is a direct attack on the First Amendment – and most of America has no idea it happened.
California Democrats Named AB 2624 After the Man Who Exposed Their Fraud
Nick Shirley is 24 years old and built his reputation with a camera, a YouTube channel, and a willingness to walk into places taxpayer-funded programs claimed to be serving people.
In Minnesota, he filmed daycare centers receiving millions in government money – and found them empty.
Federal funding was frozen and Congressional hearings were called.
Shirley testified before the House Judiciary Committee before his 24th birthday.
Vice President JD Vance called his work more useful than the entire 2024 class of Pulitzer Prize winners.
Then Shirley turned his camera toward California and started phony hospice operations collecting taxpayer money.
California Democrats responded the way Sacramento always responds when someone starts asking uncomfortable questions: they wrote a law.
Assembly Bill 2624, introduced by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta – wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta – extends the state's Safe at Home address-confidentiality program to immigration service providers.
The practical effect: if one of these taxpayer-funded organizations hands a journalist a written demand, that journalist faces a $4,000 minimum fine plus the organization's legal fees.
Refuse to pull the video, and the fine triples to $12,000.
Push further, and the law authorizes criminal penalties – up to $10,000 and one year in jail.
Republicans on the Assembly floor dubbed it the Stop Nick Shirley Act – and named it better than they knew.
The $207,000-a-Year Staffer Who Interrupted Nick Shirley to Prove a Point
The bill passed the California Senate and was sent back to the Assembly for final passage on Wednesday.
That same day, Shirley stood outside the state Capitol conducting a sidewalk interview about AB 2624.
Terry Schanz, chief of staff to Democratic Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor, walked up and interrupted the interview.
Schanz earns $17,319 a month – $207,828 a year – in taxpayer-funded compensation.
The flyer he was carrying contained a crude personal attack on Shirley – the kind of stunt that would get most employees fired on the spot.
He asked bystanders to weigh in and kept going until Shirley snatched the flyers out of his hands.
Multiple complaints have since been filed with the California Legislature's HR department, and Schanz is facing consequences, according to KCRA.
Schanz has his own history inside the Capitol – his name surfaced in a 2025 lawsuit alleging that Assembly leadership ran a toxic operation built on intimidation and retaliation.
His office also faced scrutiny earlier this year for allegedly pressuring the nonprofit newsroom CalMatters to alter footage involving McKinnor after a reporter asked her about an expensive designer handbag.
Newsom signed AB 2624 into law anyway.
Newsom wants to run for president in 2028 – and the last thing he needs is fraud videos going viral out of California the way they did out of Minnesota.
The Stop Nick Shirley Act Gives Fraud Suspects the Power to Fine Journalists Who Film Them
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression flagged the constitutional problem months ago.
AB 2624 does not merely protect workers' home addresses.
It restricts the online publication of images of people connected to designated immigration service providers.
When a covered organization sends a journalist a written demand, that journalist faces civil liability if the content stays up.
The Supreme Court has ruled repeatedly that recording in public spaces is a First Amendment right.
California's own shield law protects journalists from being compelled to reveal sources.
AB 2624 does not override the shield law – but it creates a separate civil liability track that forces independent journalists into expensive litigation before they can establish their work was protected newsgathering.
Federal prosecutors are already circling California.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli launched a corruption task force earlier this year focused on homelessness programs – because California has spent $24 billion on homelessness in five years and cannot account for where the money went.
Minnesota produced nearly 100 indictments after Shirley's videos went viral.
California Democrats watched that happen and wrote a law to make sure it couldn't happen to them.
Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., called it exactly what it is – the Protect Fraudsters Act.
The law takes effect October 1, 2027.
Nick Shirley will be filming long before that.
Sources:
- Daniel Farr, "Gavin Newsom signs controversial 'Stop Nick Shirley Act' into law," New York Post, August 22, 2026.
- "Journalist who exposed alleged Minnesota fraud says Newsom, California are his next targets," Fox News, January 22, 2026.
- "Exclusive: Nick Shirley fires back at Minnesota critics: 'Numbers don't lie, and convictions don't lie,'" Fox News, July 21, 2026.
- "Republican lawmaker says he wants to award independent journalist for investigation into Minnesota fraud," Fox News, January 2026.
- "California AB 2624 Stop Nick Shirley Act," Fox 5 San Diego, April 21, 2026.
- Elaine Mallon, "California Dems ripped for bill dubbed 'Stop Nick Shirley Act' that could penalize independent journalists," Fox News, April 15, 2026.
- "California lawmakers threaten free speech regarding immigration groups," Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, April 22, 2026.
- "California AB 2624 reaches Newsom as 'Stop Nick Shirley Act' journalism fight explodes," USA Herald, August 20, 2026.
