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CAL.Regulation

California conditions zero-emission truck incentive eligibility on manufacturers' pricing-data disclosure

Governor Gavin Newsom approved SB 1213 on September 20, 2026, as Chapter 349, effective January 1, 2027. Beginning January 1, 2027, the State Air Resources Board and the Energy Commission must condition inclusion of any medium- or heavy-duty vehicle model in incentive programs funded by the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, including the Hybrid and Zero-Emission Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project, on receipt of the pricing data specified in new Health and Safety Code Section 43216.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Office of the Governor
CAL.Regulation

California strengthens HOA residents' access to member-owned EV chargers in common areas

Governor Gavin Newsom approved SB 1267 on September 20, 2026, as Chapter 350, effective January 1, 2027. The law amends Civil Code Section 4745 so a homeowner in a common interest development may install an EV charging station in a common area for the owner's exclusive use when installation in a designated parking space is impossible or unreasonably expensive. Associations must authorize installation through a license agreement, and associations or owners may also install shared chargers for all members.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Office of the Governor
CAL.Regulation

California ends penalty exemption for paid influencers who hide campaign payments

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1130 (Chapter 335, Statutes of 2026) on September 19, 2026, amending Government Code section 84513 to remove the Political Reform Act exemption that shielded paid online political posters from penalties. From January 1, 2027, a person paid by a committee to post political content without the required disclaimer, and the paying committee, are jointly and severally liable for penalties, and the committee must flag the payment as a paid third-party post on its report.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Governor of California, TechCrunch, WebProNews
CAL.Regulation

California makes seizing ballots or election records a felony before certification

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 282 on September 19 as an urgency statute, in force immediately. New Elections Code section 18579 makes it a felony, punishable by 16 months or two or three years in custody, to seize, cause, or assist the seizure of ballots, election records, or certified voting technology before results are certified. A person with authority who directs subordinates to seize such materials commits a separate felony punishable by two, three, or four years.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Governor of California, Washington Examiner, Unbiased Headlines +1
CAL.Regulation

California rewrites deceptive-campaign-ad rules for the November election

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 502 on September 19 as an urgency statute so it governs the November 3, 2026 general election. The bill rewrites Elections Code section 20012: the ban on knowingly distributing materially deceptive election communications now turns on content material to a voter's electoral decisions or to public confidence in an election's process or outcome, the window narrows from 120 days to 30 days before an election, and disclosures must meet new color and font-size rules.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Governor of California, The Nerd Stash
CAL.Regulation

California extends deepfake election-media ban to January 1, 2031

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 686 on September 19. The bill extends the repeal date of Elections Code section 20010, California's prohibition on distributing, with actual malice, materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate within 60 days of an election, from January 1, 2027 to January 1, 2031. Media that discloses it was manipulated is exempt; candidates keep injunctive and damages remedies through 2030.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Governor of California, The Nerd Stash
CAL.Regulation

California expands Voting Rights Act to bar voter-suppression policies

Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 1164 (Chapter 338, Statutes of 2026) on September 19, 2026, revising the California Voting Rights Act of 2001. From January 1, 2027, no political subdivision or state agency may implement, impose or enforce an election policy or practice that results in, or is likely to result in, voter suppression, and no political subdivision may use a method of election that dilutes the vote of a protected class, defined as any race, color or language-minority group.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Governor of California
CAL.Regulation

California requires governor's permission for out-of-state military entry

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 1354 (Chapter 329, Statutes of 2026) on September 19. New Military and Veterans Code section 570 bars military personnel of another state, territory, or district from entering California, or causing something to enter, to perform military duty or law-enforcement functions for another state without the governor's permission. Personnel in active federal service under Title 10, military compacts entered before January 1, 2027, and training exercises are exempt.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Governor of California, EIN Presswire
CAL.Regulation

California bars law enforcement arrests within 200 feet of polling places through 2029

Governor Newsom signed SB 884, the Protect Our Polls Act, on September 19 as an urgency statute. New Elections Code Chapter 5 (from section 400) bars arrests within 200 feet of a polling place on election day except for crimes against persons or property or disruption of the polling place, requires ballot drop-off locations to open 30 days before an election, and lets counties widen the electioneering ban to 200 feet, for elections from November 2026 through 2029.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Governor of California, Washington Examiner, Unbiased Headlines
CAL.Regulation

California requires one-day notice to state officials of law-enforcement probes into election records

Governor Newsom signed AB 1664 (Chapter 336) on September 19, 2026, as an urgency statute effective immediately. New Elections Code Section 23 requires a local agency, political subdivision or elections official to notify the Secretary of State and Attorney General within one calendar day of learning of a warrant, subpoena or law-enforcement investigation involving election records or certified voting technology. Either official may intervene in court to challenge it. The section is repealed January 1, 2030.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) →

Rulings this week

All court orders

CAL.Regulation

California creates a tax credit for film and television post-production work performed in the state

Governor Gavin Newsom approved AB 2319 on September 19, 2026, creating a new California tax credit for post-production of qualified motion pictures. The credit equals 35% of qualified editorial post-production expenditures for taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, with per-project caps of $6 million for non-visual-effects work and $6 million for visual effects, plus uplifts for out-of-Los-Angeles-zone work, music scoring, and in-state principal photography.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) → · Office of the Governor of California
CAL.Regulation

California narrows election deepfake ban to 30 days before a vote and lets depicted people sue

AB 502, approved September 19, 2026, as Chapter 333, amends Elections Code section 20012. Knowingly distributing materially deceptive content about candidates, elections officials or voting equipment with malice is prohibited within 30 days before an election, replacing the prior 120-day window, and through 38 days after for officials and equipment. The person depicted, rather than any recipient, may seek an injunction and damages. The urgency statute took effect on signing.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) →
CAL.Regulation

California extends its election deepfake law to 2031

AB 686, approved September 19, 2026, as Chapter 334, Statutes of 2026, amends Elections Code section 20010 and Code of Civil Procedure section 35 to extend the repeal date of California's deceptive-media election law from January 1, 2027, to January 1, 2031. The law bars distributing, with actual malice, materially deceptive audio or visual media of a candidate within 60 days of an election, and lets candidates seek injunctive relief, damages and attorney's fees.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) →
CAL.Regulation

California extends film credit carryforward to 15 years and raises refunds to 95 percent under SB 186

Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 186, a budget trailer bill, on September 19, 2026, as Chapter 344 of the Statutes of 2026, effective immediately. It extends the carryforward period for motion picture credits 2.0 and 3.0 from 9 to 15 years. It raises the refundable amount under motion picture credit 4.0 from 90 to 95 percent, payable over two years, and, for taxable years from January 1, 2027, exempts sold credits from the $5 million business credit limit.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) →
U.S. FEDRegulation

Trump signs Graham sanctions act authorizing up to 500% tariffs on Russian imports

President Donald Trump signed H.R. 5334, the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026, on September 18. The law authorizes tariffs of up to 500% on Russian goods and up to 100% on goods from leading buyers of Russian oil and gas, bans U.S. purchases of Russian sovereign debt, and extends the Iran Sanctions Act of 1996 to 2031, with tariff decisions due 30 days after enactment.

Enrolled text (GovInfo (U.S. Government Publishing Office)) → · The White House, New York Post, The Fuse +1
N.D. CAL.LitigationCorrected

Consumers sue Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google alleging antitrust pact to slow AI development

Subscribers to paid artificial intelligence services sued Anthropic, OpenAI, SpaceXAI, and Google in the Northern District of California on September 18, 2026, alleging the companies formed an illegal horizontal agreement to slow frontier model improvements. The complaint claims public statements endorsing coordinated development pacing, presented as AI safety measures, constitute an unlawful restraint on output and product quality under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, depriving consumers of faster competitive innovations.

Corrected . An earlier version of this piece misquoted the complaint. It attributed to paragraphs 111 and 112 a sentence the complaint does not contain; the complaint's words, in paragraph 112, are now quoted. It quoted Sam Altman as writing "OpenAI will do the same"; the complaint quotes "will do the same." It placed quotation marks around several passages the complaint paraphrases, gave some paragraph numbers incorrectly, and said each plaintiff subscribed to one defendant's product; three plaintiffs allege subscriptions to all four. It also quoted Dario Amodei's essay beyond what the complaint quotes. The piece now links the desk's copy of the complaint as filed.

Filing (U.S. District Court, N.D. Cal. (ECF No. 1, LexRegister copy)) → · Bloomberg Law, Politico, The Hill +1
FRANCEPeople moves

Latham & Watkins hires Hogan Lovells Cadwalader antitrust partner Victor Levy in Paris

Latham & Watkins hired Victor Levy as a partner in its Paris Antitrust & Competition practice on September 18, 2026, moving him from Hogan Lovells Cadwalader. Levy focuses on EU and French merger control, antitrust investigations, and follow-on damages, with sector experience in aerospace and defense, consumer goods, and industrials.

Announcement (CDR News) → · PR Newswire / Latham & Watkins
N.Y.People moves

Weil Gotshal weighs strategic options including a possible merger after partner exits

Weil, Gotshal & Manges is considering options for its future, including a potential combination with a rival, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg, as the firm absorbs a wave of senior departures. Firm leaders have held informal discussions to gauge interest and have been canvassing partners while also studying lateral hires and promotions; a spokesperson said Weil is not engaged in merger discussions with any firm and could remain independent.

Announcement (Bloomberg) → · Bloomberg Law, Reuters
U.S. FEDProduct launches

CourtListener ships ChatGPT Enterprise plugin for grounded case-law and PACER research

Free Law Project made a CourtListener plugin available in ChatGPT Enterprise, connecting the assistant to case law, RECAP/PACER filings, citation networks, oral-argument transcripts, and alerts with links back to primary sources. LawSites independently reported the CourtListener plugin on September 18, 2026; Free Law Project also said it was doubling CourtListener API rate limits through October 1, 2026.

Announcement (LawSites) → · Free Law Project, Artificial Lawyer
CAL.Regulation

California restricts "reef safe" marketing claims on sunscreen products

Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1744 (Chapter 272, Statutes of 2026) on September 18, 2026, adding Business and Professions Code section 17580.7. From January 1, 2027, no one may represent in advertising or on the label or container of a sunscreen product sold in California that it is “reef safe,” “reef friendly,” “ocean safe” or similar unless the product contains no chemical ultraviolet filters such as oxybenzone or octinoxate. Violations are misdemeanors; the rule covers FDA-regulated over-the-counter sunscreens.

Enrolled text (California Legislative Information) →