We are tracking bills in the California legislature that relate to California independence.
To learn more about our approach, check out our article, “What California Independence Looks Like“.
Given recent events in the U.S., we are also particularly interested in protecting Californians against white supremacy, and ensuring that law enforcement and the military are fully subordinate to civilian leadership and the rule of law.
AB-4 Medi-Cal: eligibility. Includes all low-income Californians in Medi-Cal, regardless of their immigration status
AB-17 Peace officers: disqualification from employment. Gives the state government the power to revoke the license of police officers who commit misconduct, to ensure that police officers are accountable to civilian leadership and the rule of law, an absolute requirement in a democracy.
AB-26 Peace officers: use of force. Requires that police officers report other police officers who use excessive force, and disqualifies a police officer who uses excessive force from serving. (Similar rationale to AB-17.)
AB-39 California-China Climate Institute. Establishes a partnership between the University of California and universities in China to collaborate on research and policy related to climate change. Treats California as a nation in its own right (“The California-China Climate Institute, a University of California-wide initiative to accelerate climate action through cooperative efforts and exchange between two of the world’s largest economic powers, is hereby established.”)
AB-47 Human services: coordinated immigration support services. Provides grant funding for immigration support systems, to protect immigrant Californians from ICE and overreach by the United States’ broken immigration system.
AB-48 Law enforcement: kinetic energy projectiles and chemical agents. Severely limits the use of projectiles and chemical weapons by police departments, and requires full disclosure of their use. (Similar rationale to AB-17.)
AB-53 Election day holiday. Makes election days a holiday. Helps ensure that all California voters are able to get to the polls, strengthening California’s democracy.
AB-65 California Universal Basic Income Program. Establishes a universal basic income in California (no details yet; as of Feb. 2 this is a spot bill). UBI is an idea that originated in California, and stands in contrast to the American tendency to constantly subject people to means-testing in order to have access to basic necessities.
AB-101 Pupil instruction: high school graduation requirements: ethnic studies. Adds a one-semester ethnic studies class to the high school curriculum. Ethnic studies help counteract American myths that hold Californians back (e.g. the wise and virtuous founding fathers).
AB-125 Food and agriculture: climate crisis: COVID-19 recovery. A general obligation bond to “support solutions to the climate crisis and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that would create a more equitable and resilient food and farming system” (as of Feb. 2, there are no details). Would allow California to use its own borrowing power to lift Californians out of the COVID-19 recession in our own way, rather than depending solely on the federal government’s borrowing power.
AB-218 Change of gender and sex identifier. Makes it easier for Californians to legally change their gender and sex identifier, and extends this benefit, in some cases to people who live or were born outside. This bill both extends California’s commitment to inclusion, and projects California’s influence beyond its borders.
AB-265 Medi-Cal: reimbursement rates. Gives California full control over setting Medi-Cal reimbursement rates, rather than pegging them to Medicare reimbursement rates decided by the federal government.
AB-310 Public banks. Converts the state of California’s Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank into a full-fledged public bank. Helps establishes an alternative to the American banking system and gives California a way to respond to economic disaster without the help of the federal government (“The pandemic has laid bare the failure of the federal government to justly deal with the economic fallout wrought by a disaster.”)
AB-329 Bail. Abolishes cash bail in most cases, bringing California more in line with the rest of the world. To learn more about how cash bail is a peculiarly awful American institution, see Prop 25: YES to ending cash bail in California.
ACA-2 Death penalty. Abolishes the death penalty in California, bringing California in line with other modern democracies.
ACA-3 Involuntary servitude. Absolutely prohibits involuntary servitude (i.e., slavery) in California, removing the American exception for punishments for a crime.
AJR-1 Abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. (This is a request to Congress, not a change to state law.)
SB-2 Peace officers: certification: civil rights. Establishes a process for decertifying police officers. Similar to AB-17. As of Feb 2, details yet to be added to the bill.
SB-98 Public peace: media access. Ensures media access to rallies and other demonstrations. The United States has a concerning record of police interfering with (or arresting) members of the press. This bill would keep that from happening in California.
SB-107 CalFresh. Reduces the number of hoops people have to go through to access CalFresh, a federally financed, state-run program. Similar argument to AB-65 around means-testing. Also would bring more federal dollars to California, reducing the wide gap between how much tax revenue the federal government collects from California and how much it spends.
SB-260 Climate Corporate Accountability Act. Requires large companies that do business in California to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. Uses California’s economic leverage to fight climate change on a global scale.
SB-262 Bail. Eliminates cash bail in most instances. Substantially similar to AB-329 in the Assembly (having the same bill in both houses increases its chance of passing).
SCA-2 Public housing projects. Repeals a 1950s-era provision blocking cities from constructing public housing projects without voter approval.
