A look at 44 New California Laws for 2022

This past year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed 770 new laws that will soon make their way to California. Some begin in 2022 and others in the following years.   Here is a sampling of 44 new laws set to hit the State of California.

“Alien” is removed from California State Code (AB 1096) – strikes the word “Alien” from the California State Code and using the words “non-citizen” or “immigrant”.

Assisted Death (SB 380) – wait period reduced from 15-days to 48-hours.  Bill would allow for an individual to qualify for aid-in-dying medication by making 2 oral requests a minimum of 48 hours apart. The bill would eliminate the requirement that an individual who is prescribed and ingests aid-in-dying medication make a final attestation. The bill would require that the date of all oral and written requests be documented in an individual’s medical record and would require that upon a transfer of care, that record be provided to the qualified individual.

Bacon Law – this was from a 2018 ballot measure which set living space standards for breeding pigs. It is anticipated this will now create shortages and price surges, however, lawsuits have been filed and lawmakers might push for a 28-month delay.

Barber Training (SB 803) – cut down training requirements from barbers and cosmetologists in an effort to reduce debt and let trainers get into the industry much faster.

Criminal Penalties

• Ending Mandatory Minimum Prison/Jail (SB 73) – gives judges more discretion to impose probation or alternate sentences.  This bill would delete various crimes relating to controlled substances, including, but not limited to, the crimes described above, from those prohibitions against granting probation or a suspended sentence. The bill would authorize the remaining prohibitions on probation to be waived by a court in the interests of justice. By making additional persons eligible for probation, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
• Felony Murder Rule (SB 775)  – basically, under this bill, it restricts accomplices to people who intended to kill or directly participated.  Previous law allowed accomplices to be convicted of felony murder.
•  Street Gangs (AB 333) – limits prison terms for those associated with street gangs. This bill would also require that the crimes committed to form a pattern of criminal gang activity have commonly benefited a criminal street gang and that the common benefit from the offenses be more than reputational, as specified. The bill would remove burglary, looting, felony vandalism, and specified personal identity fraud violations from the crimes that define a pattern of criminal gang activity. The bill would prohibit the use of the currently charged crime to prove the pattern of criminal gang activity. More info.
• Supervises Person – Release  (AB 1228) – This bill would require a court that elects to order the release of persons on probation pursuant to this provision to release persons on probation on their own recognizance pending a formal revocation hearing absent a finding by clear and convincing evidence that conditions of release are required by the individual circumstances of the case in order to reasonably protect the public and provide reasonable assurance of the person’s future appearance in court. The bill would prohibit a court from imposing cash bail as a condition of release absent a showing by clear and convincing evidence that other reasonable conditions of release would be inadequate to encourage the person to attend court in compliance with the court’s orders. The bill would require the court to consider the person’s ability to pay cash bail and would require any bail order to be set at a level the person could reasonably afford. The bill would also prohibit the court from imposing the costs of any imposed conditions on the supervised person. The bill would prohibit the court from denying release for a person on probation for felony conduct before the court holds a formal probation revocation hearing unless the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that there are no means reasonably available that would encourage the person to attend court as ordered. The bill would make related conforming changes. The bill would specify that these provisions do not limit the court’s authority to hold, release, limit release, or impose conditions of release for new charges.

Cocktails-to-Go (SB 389) – allows restaurants and some bars to sell to-go wine and cocktails through 2027. These drinks must be sold with food.

Compost Law (SB 1383) – regulations require that jurisdictions conduct education and outreach on organics recycling to all residents, businesses (including those that generate edible food that can be donated) haulers, solid waste facilities, and local food banks and other food recovery organization.  More info via CalRecycle,

Education to Inmates (SB 416) – This bill would require the department to make college programs available for the benefit of inmates with a general education development certificate or equivalent or a high school diploma and would require those college programs to only be provided by the California Community Colleges, the California State University, the University of California, or other regionally accredited, nonprofit colleges or universities. The bill would provide a set of criteria to prioritize various college programs, including face-to-face instruction, comprehensive in-person support, and coordination with nonprofit postsecondary programs serving formerly incarcerated students. The bill would require the education providers to be responsible for determining and developing their curricula and degree pathways, determining certificate pathways, providing instructional staff, and determining what services will be offered to ensure incarcerated students can successfully complete the course of study. (Note – this would be free to inmates as the bill states ” Do not charge incarcerated students or their families for tuition, course materials, or other educational components.”)

Ethnic Studies (AB 101) –  This bill adds the completion of a one-semester course in ethnic studies, meeting specified requirements, to the graduation requirements commencing with pupils graduating in the 2029–30 school year, including for pupils enrolled in a charter school. The bill would expressly authorize local educational agencies, including charter schools, to require a full-year course in ethnic studies at their discretion. The bill would require local educational agencies, including charter schools, to offer an ethnic studies course commencing with the 2025–26 school year, as specified. The bill would authorize, subject to the course offerings of a local educational agency, including a charter school, a pupil to satisfy the ethnic studies course requirement by completing either (A) a course based on the model curriculum in ethnic studies developed by the commission, (B) an existing ethnic studies course, (C) an ethnic studies course taught as part of a course that has been approved as meeting the A–G requirements of the University of California and the California State University, or (D) a locally developed ethnic studies course approved by the governing board of the school district or the governing body of the charter school. The bill would prohibit a course that does not use ethnic studies content as the primary content through which the subject is taught from being used to satisfy the ethnic studies course requirement. The bill would require a pupil who completes a course described above to also accrue credit for coursework in the subject that the course is offered, including, if applicable, credit towards satisfying a course required for a diploma of graduation from high school.

Food Delivery App (AB 286) – This bill would make it unlawful for a food delivery platform to charge a customer any purchase price, as defined, for food or beverage that is higher than the price posted on the food delivery platform’s internet website by the food facility at the time of the order. The bill would make it unlawful for a food delivery platform to retain any portion of amounts designated as a tip or gratuity. The bill would require a food delivery platform to pay any tip or gratuity for a delivery order, in its entirety, to the person delivering the food or beverage, and to pay any tip or gratuity for a pickup order, in its entirety, to the food facility. The bill would require a food delivery platform to disclose to the customer and the food facility a cost breakdown of each transaction, including, with certain exceptions, prescribed information. The bill would make the provisions of the act severable.

Gender-Neutral Store Displays (AB 1084) – stores with 500 employees are requested to display toy products in gender-neutral ways. Enforcement doesn’t begin until Jan 1, 2024.

Gun Bills

• AB 1057 enables law enforcement to seize ghost guns under gun violence or domestic violence restraining orders, SB 320 strengthens procedures ensuring the relinquishment of firearms
• AB 1191 requires analysis of crime gun data to track gun violence trends
• AB 887 allows domestic violence survivors to file restraining orders online and SB 538 enables electronic filing and remote appearances
• More info via Governor Gavin Newsom’s press release

Homeless Shelters & Transparency (AB 362): Improves the conditions of shelters by requiring that recipients of certain shelter funding grants comply with health and safety regulations to be eligible for funding.

Housing Bills

• SB 9 – requires cities to approve four housing units on a single-family lot. Also, would have to approve splitting single-family lots so they could be sold separately.
• SB 10 – easing way for local governments to rezone neighborhoods near mass transit for up to 10-housing units.

Mental Health Absence from School (SB 14) – ensures that student absences for behavioral health concerns will be treated the same as excused absences for physical health concerns.  In addition, SB 14 requires the California Department of Education to recommend best practices and evidence-based mental health trainings to address youth behavioral health, including training for teachers, staff, and students on how to recognize, appropriately respond, and seek help for mental health concerns.

Mental Health in School (SB224) – requires local educational agencies and charter schools which currently offer one or more courses in health education to middle or high school students to include mental health content in those courses.  SB 224 also requires the California Department of Education to develop a plan to expand mental health instruction in California public schools on or before January 1, 2024.

Menstrual Products on Campus (AB 367) – require a public school, as provided, maintaining any combination of classes from grades 6 to 12, inclusive, to stock the school’s restrooms with an adequate supply of free menstrual products, as defined, available and accessible, free of cost, in all women’s restrooms and all-gender restrooms, and in at least one men’s restroom, at all times, and to post a designated notice, on or before the start of the 2022–23 school year, as prescribed. This bill would require the California State University and each community college district, and would encourage the Regents of the University of California and private universities, colleges, and institutions of higher learning, to stock an adequate supply of menstrual products, available and accessible, free of cost, at no fewer than one designated and accessible central location on each campus and to post a designated notice, as provided.

Minimum Wage: $15-an-hour minimum wage will kick in for companies with 25 employees or more. $14 for those with fewer than 25 employees.

Prescribed Burns (SB 332) – This bill would provide that no person shall be liable for any fire suppression or other costs otherwise recoverable for a prescribed burn if specified conditions are met, including, among others, that the burn be for the purpose of wildland fire hazard reduction, ecological maintenance and restoration, cultural burning, silviculture, or agriculture, and that, when required, a certified burn boss review and approve a written prescription for the burn. The bill would provide that any person whose conduct constitutes gross negligence shall not be entitled to immunity from fire suppression or other costs otherwise recoverable, as specified. The bill would define terms for its purposes.

Police Bills

• Age of Officer – minimum age to become a police officer jump from 18 to 21.
• Criminal Law (SB 715) – Attorney General to investigate all fatal shootings by police of civilians
• Decertify Officers (SB 2) – creates a process to decertify officers. This bill begins this year, but will be rolled out for several years through 2023.
• Misconduct Records (SB 16) – This bill would make a sustained finding involving force that is unreasonable or excessive, and any sustained finding that an officer failed to intervene against another officer using unreasonable or excessive force, subject to disclosure. Note – this expands what is made public.
• Restraint (AB 490) –  prohibit a law enforcement agency from authorizing techniques or transport methods that involve a substantial risk of positional asphyxia.
• Rubber Bullets (AB 48) – prohibit the use of kinetic energy projectiles or chemical agents by any law enforcement agency to disperse any assembly, protest, or demonstration, except in compliance with specified standards set by the bill, and would prohibit their use solely due to a violation of an imposed curfew, verbal threat, or noncompliance with a law enforcement directive.
• Use of Force (AB 26) – This bill would require those law enforcement policies to require those officers to immediately report potential excessive force, as defined. The bill would additionally require those policies to, among other things, prohibit retaliation against officers that report violations of law or regulation of another officer to a supervisor, as specified, and to require that an officer who fails to intercede be disciplined up to and including in the same manner as the officer who used excessive force.

Roadkill Feast (SB 395) – A pilot program no later than January 1, 2022, for the issuance of wildlife salvage permits through a user-friendly and cell-phone-friendly web-based portal developed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife to persons desiring to recover, possess, use, or transport, for purposes of salvaging wild game meat for human consumption of, any deer, elk, pronghorn antelope, or wild pig that has been accidentally killed as a result of a vehicle collision on a roadway within California. The bill would require the commission to prescribe the requirements for applying for and receiving a wildlife salvage permit. The bill would authorize the commission to restrict the roadways where wildlife salvage may be conducted and the species subject to salvage, and to regulate any other aspect of the pilot program, as specified.

Secret Employment Settlements (SB 331) – expands the 2018 law to expand the prohibition to include acts of workplace harassment or discrimination not based on sex and acts of harassment or discrimination not based on sex by the owner of a housing accommodation.

Single Use Food ware & Condiments (AB 1276) –   This bill prohibits a food facility from providing any single-use foodware accessory or standard condiment to a consumer unless requested by the consumer, as provided. The bill would prohibit those items from being bundled or packaged in a way that prohibits the consumer from taking only the item desired. The bill would authorize a food facility to ask a drive-through consumer, or a food facility located within a public airport to ask a walk-through consumer, if the consumer wants a single-use foodware accessory in specified circumstances.

Slow Speed Limits (AB 43) – Makes it easier to lower speed limits when there are traffic safety concerns. Establish a prima facie speed limit of 25 miles per hour on state highways located in any business or residence district and would authorize the Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to change the speed limit on any such highway, as prescribed, including erecting signs to give notice thereof. This bill would authorize a local authority to further reduce the speed limit, as specified, and require that certain violations be subject to a warning citation, for the first 30 days of implementation. The bill would, in some circumstances, authorize the reduction of a speed limit beginning June 30, 2024, or when the Judicial Council has developed an online tool for adjudicating traffic infraction violations, whichever is sooner. The bill would require Caltrans to accordingly revise the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, as specified.

Stealthing now Sexual Assault (AB 453) – This bill would additionally provide that a person commits a sexual battery who causes contact between a sexual organ, from which a condom has been removed, and the intimate part of another who did not verbally consent to the condom being removed. The bill would also specify that a person commits a sexual battery who causes contact between an intimate part of the person and a sexual organ of another from which the person removed a condom without verbal consent.

Street Racing & Sideshows (AB 3) –  this bill would, commencing July 1, 2025, additionally authorize the court to order the privilege to operate a motor vehicle suspended for 90 days to 6 months and restrict the person’s operation of a motor vehicle for the purposes of their employment, as specified. The bill would require the court to consider a person’s hardships, as specified, when deciding to either suspend or restrict a driver’s license. The bill would require the Department of Motor Vehicles to suspend or restrict a driver’s license as ordered by the court.

Student Sleep In Bill (AB 328) – This bill would require the schoolday for middle schools and high schools, including those operated as charter schools, to begin no earlier than 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m., respectively, by July 1, 2022, or the date on which a school district’s or charter school’s respective collective bargaining agreement that is operative on January 1, 2020, expires, whichever is later, except for rural school districts. To the extent the bill imposes new duties on school districts and charter schools, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would encourage the State Department of Education to post specified information on its internet website, including research on the impact of sleep deprivation on adolescents and the benefits of a later school start time, and to advise school districts and charter schools of this posting.

Truth in Recycling (SB 343) – declare that it is the public policy of the state that claims related to the recyclability of a product or packaging be truthful and that consumers deserve accurate and useful information related to how to properly handle the end of life of a product or packaging. The measure prohibits the use of the chasing-arrows symbol on products that are not truly recyclable.

Vote By Mail (AB 37) – This bill would extend the requirements to mail a ballot to every registered voter to all elections and apply them to all local elections officials. This bill would require a vote by mail tracking system to be accessible to voters with disabilities. Note – while vote by mail is here to stay, people can still vote in person. 

Warehouse Worker Distribution Centers (AB701) – prevents warehouse retails from firing workers who miss quotas that interfere with bathroom and breaks.

Water Rates & Lawsuits (SB 323) – This bill would require a water or sewer agency mailing a written notice to the record owner of a parcel affected by a proposed fee or charge pursuant to Article XIII D to include a statement that there is a 120-day statute of limitations for challenging any new, increased, or extended fee or charge. This bill would provide that the provisions of this bill do not apply to a judicial action arising from billing errors, as provided, due to the defective implementation of an ordinance, resolution, or motion adopting, modifying, or amending a fee or charge for water or sewer service.

Women Execs (SB 826) –  passed in 2018, this begins in 2022 requiring corporations to add more women to their boards of executives. No later than the close of the 2021 calendar year, the bill would increase that required minimum number to 2 female directors if the corporation has 5 directors or to 3 female directors if the corporation has 6 or more directors. The bill would require, on or before specified dates, the Secretary of State to publish various reports on its Internet Web site documenting, among other things, the number of corporations in compliance with these provisions. The bill would also authorize the Secretary of State to impose fines for violations of the bill, as specified, and would provide that moneys from these fines are to be available, upon appropriation, to offset the cost of administering the bill.