Nick Shirley filmed an empty Minneapolis daycare billing the government for children who were never there.
He took the same camera to California and found the same empty rooms.
What came next Gavin Newsom isn't going to like.
Nick Shirley Filmed Empty Facilities and Federal Prosecutors Followed
Nick Shirley is an independent journalist whose Minnesota videos went viral – empty daycares in the Somali community collecting government checks for services never rendered.
Federal prosecutors followed.
Dozens of people connected to those Minnesota fraud cases have since been charged.
California Democrats watched that unfold and drew the obvious conclusion.
When Shirley arrived in California and started finding the same empty facilities – immigration nonprofits and hospice centers billing the government for over $170 million in alleged fraud – Sacramento moved immediately to make his investigation illegal.
They introduced AB 2624 in February, the same month Shirley's California work drew national attention.
San Diego Republican Carl DeMaio named it on sight: the Stop Nick Shirley Act.
The law was designed to stop him from doing to California what he did to Minnesota.
https://twitter.com/TonyRayHarvey/status/2092740861721452634
The Stop Nick Shirley Act Was Written by the California AGs Wife
Assembly Bill 2624 expands California's Safe at Home program to cover employees of nonprofits that help people navigate the immigration system.
The original program was created in 1998 to protect domestic violence survivors – substitute mailing addresses to keep abusers from tracking them down.
Sacramento used that goodwill as cover.
Under AB 2624, anyone who publishes information or images of those workers – and that California determines "incites violence or threats" – faces fines from $10,000 to $50,000 and sentences from one year in county jail to state prison.
The law also lets immigration services providers sue in civil court and collect at least $4,000 in damages per violation.
The bill was introduced in February by Assemblywoman Mia Bonta of Alameda.
Mia Bonta is the wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The state's top law enforcement officer's wife wrote a law to shield the very organizations her husband's office should be investigating.
California's state Senate passed it 30 to 10, a straight party-line vote with zero Republican support.
Newsom signed it knowing he will not be in office when it goes into effect on October 1, 2027 – term limits push him out long before any First Amendment court challenge reaches the governor's desk.
Nine House Republicans Want the DOJ to Block AB 2624 in Federal Court
Nine House Republicans, led by California Rep. James Gallagher, sent a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche urging the Justice Department to investigate and sue to block AB 2624 on First Amendment grounds.
The Republican Study Committee – chaired by Rep. August Pfluger of Texas – joined California Reps. Vince Fong, Young Kim, and Tom McClintock in signing the letter.
The letter accused California Democrats of taking unconstitutional steps to suppress fraud investigations.
Gallagher was direct.
"This is classic Sacramento," Gallagher said. "Instead of going after fraud and demanding answers about where taxpayer dollars are going, they pass a law that could make it harder for people to expose it."
"That's completely backwards. Californians deserve to know where their money is going, and journalists should be able to follow the facts without Sacramento getting in the way."
Shirley said he is willing to test the law.
His rally outside the California State Capitol drew hundreds of supporters the same week Democrats were pushing the bill through final votes.
That is also where Assemblywoman Tina McKinnor's chief of staff, Terry Schanz, showed up – stepping into an interview Shirley was conducting to deliver a bizarre personal attack on camera.
A law ostensibly designed to combat harassment produced a harassment incident at its own signing rally.
California taxpayers fund Schanz's $17,319 monthly salary.
Multiple complaints have since been filed against him with the legislature's human resources department.
Sacramento sent its best.
The First Amendment already resolved whether journalists can film in public and report what they find.
Sacramento built AB 2624 around discretionary enforcement language – "incites violence or threats" – broad enough to swallow any investigation the state does not like.
Genuine threats are already illegal under California law.
AB 2624 exists to fill a different gap – Sacramento's inability to control what the public is allowed to see.
Newsom will be long gone when the First Amendment challenge lands – a politician who signed a law and left the state to defend it.
Nine House Republicans just handed Todd Blanche the case – and California handed him the reason.
Sources:
- Dmitri Bolt, "House Republicans Are Asking AG Todd Blanche to Block California's 'Stop Nick Shirley Act,'" Townhall, August 28, 2026.
- Lowell Cauffiel, "Newsom Signs the 'Stop Nick Shirley Act' into Law," Breitbart, August 23, 2026.
- Cullen Linebarger, "California Governor Gavin Newsom Signs 'Stop Nick Shirley Act' into Law," Gateway Pundit, August 23, 2026.
- "Fraud Investigator Nick Shirley Goes Viral After Slamming Newsom," Fox News, March 17, 2026.
