Gavin Newsom

Santa Clara County rejected a DOJ demand for data on 902 voters it suspects are noncitizens and to set aside their ballots, calling it unlawful and infeasible before Election Day; San Mateo and Contra Costa counties raised similar objections, noting the DOJ letters carry no court order. The dispute escalated after a federal judge and a 9th Circuit panel both rejected a related Trump administration effort to block roughly 20,000 California ballots statewide, calling the claims about noncitizen voters not credible and the intervention unconstitutional. The DOJ has appealed again. Gov. Newsom says California is deploying election attorneys to monitor DOJ observers at polling sites.

The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is sending roughly 1,000 federal monitors nationwide for Election Day, including to Pennsylvania counties where state law bars them from entering polling places. DOJ has said ICE and FBI personnel won't serve as monitors, though staff from agencies like the DEA, ATF and Federal Bureau of Prisons may participate without firearms or enforcement authority. Chicago has coordinated security with police, the FBI and emergency officials amid concerns over immigration enforcement near polling sites, while a coalition of civil rights groups is deploying lawyers and poll monitors. California is separately sending attorneys and observers to battleground districts, and DOJ continues legal challenges over noncitizen voter rolls.

A House Judiciary Committee report led by Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Tom McClintock alleges that police and sheriff's departments in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego rejected nearly 9,000 ICE detainer requests in recent years, with Los Angeles honoring roughly 0.1% of those it received. The report also cites ICE figures claiming California authorities released over 4,500 sought immigrants since January 2025, and highlights several high-profile killings involving previously deported individuals to argue sanctuary laws like the Trust Act and California Values Act endanger public safety.

Newsom's office has disputed similar claims previously, saying California has transferred thousands of inmates to ICE custody since 2019. Republicans are pushing the Shut Down Sanctuary Policies Act to bar such local restrictions.

California lawmakers passed Senate Bill 960 and Assembly Bill 2694, expanding community colleges' authority to offer bachelor's degrees, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed them after previously rejecting similar measures. Community college Chancellor Sonya Christian opposed last-minute amendments that added a complex formula limiting which degrees colleges can offer, arguing they undercut the bills' original intent. The fight reflects a long-running dispute among community colleges, California State University, and the University of California over academic turf, rooted in the 1960 Master Plan for Higher Education's division of roles. Cal State has resisted community college expansion as duplication, while also seeking doctoral authority opposed by UC, leaving the broader jurisdictional conflict unresolved.

California's Proposition 40 would create the first U.S. tax on billionaires' net worth, but two rival measures, Propositions 41 and 42, contain "poison pill" language that could nullify it even if it wins a majority. Polling shows all three measures drawing majority support, pointing to voter confusion over the ballot language. A billionaire-backed coalition, including Sergey Brin and Eric Schmidt, has bankrolled the opposition, with spending topping $350 million against roughly $34 million raised by supporters, including labor unions like SEIU-UHW. Democrats are split: Bernie Sanders backs Prop. 40 while Gavin Newsom opposes it, favoring a national wealth tax instead. If competing measures both pass, the outcome would likely be settled in court.

California lawmakers are considering a proposed 5 percent wealth tax on billionaires ahead of a vote, a measure that critics argue could drive out wealthy residents and ultimately cost the state tens of billions in lost revenue, according to a Hoover Institution study. Gov. Gavin Newsom has opposed the proposal. Commentators have drawn comparisons to France, where high taxes and expansive welfare and pension commitments have fueled unrest and economic stagnation, raising questions for other jurisdictions considering similar tax-the-rich policies as a long-term revenue strategy.

The debate comes as prediction markets watch California's fiscal policy and the broader 2026 midterm landscape, where tariffs, foreign policy, and corruption allegations could shape control of Congress.