YouTuber Nick Shirley slaps California with First Amendment lawsuit over 'Stop Nick Shirley Act'

SACRAMENTO - Conservative YouTuber Nick Shirley sued California Friday, accusing Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta of trying to muzzle him after he started exposing alleged fraud in taxpayer-funded immigrant programs.

America First Legal and San Diego lawyer John W. Howard filed the federal complaint in Sacramento on behalf of Shirley against Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber. They want a judge to declare Assembly Bill 2624 unconstitutional and block its enforcement.

The law, signed by Newsom on Aug. 22, is officially the "Safe at Work Act." Republicans and Shirley's supporters immediately branded it the "Stop Nick Shirley Act."

Shirley, 23, built a massive following by filming himself confronting operators of Somali-run daycares in Minnesota. He claims those videos helped uncover more than $100 million in fraud. He then turned his camera on similar operations in California - Armenian hospices, Somali daycares, and the state's no-ID voting system.

He posted that he had arrived in California on Jan. 31. Two days later Newsom said San Diego's Somali community felt "under siege" from "right-wing provocateurs." On Feb. 5 Bonta dismissed Shirley's fraud claims as "reckless," "false," "outrageous," and "ridiculous."

Fifteen days after that, Bonta's wife, Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (D-Oakland), introduced AB 2624.

The statute expands California's Safe at Home address-confidentiality program to employees and volunteers at "designated immigration support services" - nonprofits, legal clinics, and health facilities that help immigrants. Starting Oct. 1, 2027, those workers can get a substitute address so their real home and work locations stay out of public records.

It also lets them send written takedown demands and sue anyone who posts their personal information - home addresses, phone numbers, employment history, even data that is already public - if the poster had "specific intent" to enable harassment or violence. Civil penalties can reach $4,000 per violation.

America First Legal President Gene Hamilton called Shirley "an American patriot" who has been exposing fraud "that too many people have tolerated or facilitated for decades."

"California was so threatened by that work that the Attorney General's own wife introduced a bill to silence Mr. Shirley, in violation of the First Amendment," Hamilton said. "Gov. Gavin Newsom gladly signed it. This will not stand."

Shirley himself asked: "Why create new laws that restrict the freedom of speech if you have nothing to hide? Now more than ever, the people deserve more transparency, not less."

The lawsuit argues the law is a content-based, viewpoint-discriminatory restriction that singles out critics of the immigration-services industry while leaving speech about immigration enforcement untouched. It also claims the statute is overbroad, vague, and already chilling Shirley's reporting even though it does not take effect for another year.

Bonta's office said it was aware of the suit and would respond in court. Newsom's office has previously insisted the bill has "nothing to do with Nick Shirley" and is only meant to protect workers from doxxing and threats.

The case, Shirley v. Bonta, was filed in the Eastern District of California under a temporary number and has not yet been assigned a judge.