New California Laws

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter

California Governor Gavin Newsom signed 770 new bills into laws that went into effect Saturday, January 1. These new laws range from criminal, COVID-19, gender neutral children sections, voting laws and more.

Here are a few of the new laws taking effect in California this year:

Vote By Mail

Newsom’s Assembly Bill 37 requires every registered, active voter be mailed a ballot. This law, temporarily adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, will become a permanent mainstay in California. This new law requires ballots to be mailed out no less than 29 days before an election. AB 37 also applies to local elections.

Alcohol to Go

Senate Bill 389 allows restaurants to continue to serve to-go alcoholic beverages to customers until the end of 2026. The California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control announced that alcohol could be sold for pickup or delivery in March 2020, and Senator Bill Dodd, who authored the bill, said the intention is to help restaurants recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Restaurants are required to follow strict selling and packaging guidelines to ensure safety practices for both buyers and sellers.

Gender Neutral

Retail Departments

Assembly Bill 1084 is applicable to all retail department stores with a total of 500 or more employees that sell childcare items or toys. The bill dictates that qualifying retail locations are required to have a gender neutral area for children under the age of 13 “in which a reasonable selection of the items and toys for children that it sells shall be displayed, regardless of whether they have been traditionally marketed for either girls or for boys,” according to the bill.

Under the bill, a childcare item is defined as “any product designed or intended by the manufacturer to facilitate sleep, relaxation, or the feeding of children, or to help children with sucking or teething.”

Retail stores that fail to comply with the bill, beginning January 1, 2024, will be liable for civil penalty with an initial fine of $250 for the first violation, $500 for the subsequent violation, and a possible civil suit penalty moving from the third violation onward.

COVID-19

Senate Bill 510 ensures PCR COVID-19 tests are issued for free under health insurance companies with the guarantee of access to these tests at any time of request.

“This bill will ensure uniformity in testing payment and access rules throughout the state,” Newsom wrote in October, 2021. “It is crucial that Californians continue to have timely access to [testing and vaccination] without having to pay for unexpected out-pocket expenses.”

Senate Bill 742 makes it unlawful for individuals to “knowingly approach a person … at a vaccination site, as specified, for the purpose of obstructing, injuring, harassing, intimidating, or interfering with … that person,” according to the bill. There is a violation penalty of up to $1,000, as well as up to six months in jail. Vaccination sites include hospitals, clinics, doctors offices or sites where vaccinations are available to the public.

The measure was introduced after a protest temporarily halted services at a vaccination clinic hosted at Dodger Stadium.

“Harassing,” by the bill’s definition, means consciously approaching someone with “the purpose of passing a leaflet or handbill to, displaying a sign to, or engaging in oral protest, education, or counseling with, that other person in a public way or on a sidewalk area” within the proximity of 30-feet without their consent.

Criminal Justice

Two bills regarding sexual conduct and consent were given the greenlight by Newsom. The bills were first introduced by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia and have been in the works since 2017.

Assembly Bill 453 involves what is referred to as “stealthing,” or removing a condom during sex without consent from a partner, which will now be deemed a civil sexual battery offense and can result in lawsuits in pursuit of damages and relief.

And Assembly Bill 1171 eliminates the exemption and acknowledges spousal rape the same as non-spousal rape.

“The first question a rape victim is asked should not be whether or not they are married. Rape is rape,”  Garcia said in a statement.

The law previously allowed room for “spousal rapists” to plea bargain for lesser sentences including probation whereas a non-spousal rape included a three-year mandatory prison sentence.