Rob Bonta

Rule Changes

Called the federal claims 'absurd' and urged the court to reject the ballot order

The Supreme Court refused on Nov. 2 to make California set aside about 20,000 mail ballots until their citizenship could be checked. California held its midterm election the next day with those ballots in the count.

Updated 2 days ago

Rule Changes

Co-lead plaintiff; publicly leading the state coalition challenge

Two federal judges have blocked the Trump administration's $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions. A Boston judge ruled in June that the fee is an unlawful tax Congress never authorized, and a California judge ruled Sept. 30 that the administration skipped required rulemaking.

Updated Nov 2

Rule Changes

Lead plaintiff in the multistate lawsuit

A federal judge in Boston struck down the Trump administration's rule narrowing who counts as 'medically frail' under Medicaid work requirements. Judge Richard Stearns vacated the disputed language on October 29, siding with 25 states and the District of Columbia. The ruling blocks enforcement of the test against the plaintiff states.

Updated Oct 31

Rule Changes

Co-led the state coalition; negotiated settlement

Teens on Facebook and Instagram face a two-hour daily cap, midnight-to-6-a.m. lockouts and no push notifications during school hours. The settlement that created those rules also bans "cosmetic procedure filters" for minors, and that ban is harder to write than to announce.

Updated Oct 25

Rule Changes

Urged Californians to file claims; the coalition itself is led by Connecticut

People who bought certain generic prescription drugs in the United States between May 2009 and December 2019 can file claims for settlement money until March 8, 2027. A federal court in Connecticut has given preliminary approval to the plans for dividing that money up.

Updated Oct 25

Rule Changes

Leading California's October 2 lawsuit challenging the CAFE rollback

The Transportation Department's final fuel-economy rule, published September 28, sets the 2031 fleetwide target at 34.9 miles per gallon, down from 50.4 under President Biden. It also rewrites standards for model years 2022 through 2026 and ends the credit trading that let automakers buy and sell efficiency gains, starting in 2028.

Updated Oct 24

Rule Changes

Suing the Trump administration over offshore wind lease buybacks announced in June 2026

Federal judges cleared all five East Coast offshore wind projects to resume construction by February 2, 2026, finding the Trump administration had not justified its national security suspensions. The five projects total about 5.8 gigawatts. Vineyard Wind and Revolution Wind are now fully built and sending power; Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind is more than 80% complete.

Updated Oct 23

Money Moves

Helped negotiate the settlement

Lyft agreed on September 30 to pay $272.5 million to settle claims it misclassified California drivers as independent contractors, the largest wage-and-hour settlement in the state's history. The deal is not final: as of October 18, Judge Ethan P. Schulman of San Francisco Superior Court had not signed the judgment that starts the payment clock.

Updated Oct 20

Rule Changes

Leading 20-state lawsuit against $100,000 H-1B fee

The wage-weighted H-1B selection rule took effect February 27, 2026, replacing the random lottery. The first registration period under it ran March 4–19. Under the new system, a worker offered a Level IV wage (the top tier) gets four entries in the selection pool; a Level I worker gets one. The rule was designed to curb the duplicate-registration fraud that inflated FY 2024 submissions to 758,994 for 85,000 slots.

Updated Oct 16

Money Moves

As of October 2026: Settled the 12-state antitrust suit September 21, 2026; the judge approved the settlement September 30, clearing the way for the merger to close October 6.

On October 6, Paramount Skydance completed its $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, creating a combined company named Skydance and ending a 13-month bidding war that survived federal and state antitrust challenges. The deal closed after a federal judge approved a settlement with 12 states on September 30, and shares of Skydance began trading on the NYSE under the ticker SKYD.

Updated Oct 9

Money Moves

As of October 2026: Leads the 12-state coalition suing to block the merger

The Federal Communications Commission approved a plan that lets the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar hold nearly half the equity of the company that owns CBS and is buying Warner Bros. Discovery. The investors receive only non-voting shares; the Ellison family keeps full voting control.

Updated Oct 3

Rule Changes

As of June 2026: Defending California's open-carry ban before the full Ninth Circuit en banc panel (argued June 3, 2026); Baird and Rhode decisions pending

The Supreme Court issued two Second Amendment rulings in June 2026, both expanding gun rights. On June 25, Wolford v. Lopez struck down Hawaii's rule barring licensed gun carriers from entering businesses without advance property-owner permission—a decision that also applies to similar laws in California, New York, Maryland, and New Jersey.

Updated Jun 26

Money Moves

As of May 2026: Leading multi-state lawsuit to block the merger

For two decades, federal law has barred any single company from owning television stations that reach more than 39% of American households. On March 20, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) waived that rule for the first time, clearing Nexstar Media Group's $6.2 billion acquisition of rival broadcaster Tegna. The combined company now owns 265 stations in 44 states, reaching roughly 80% of U.S. TV households — more than double the legal cap.

Updated May 30

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Overseeing California's expanding privacy enforcement apparatus

California passed the first comprehensive state privacy law in 2018. Eight years later, twenty states have followed, creating a regulatory patchwork that now covers roughly half the American population. Indiana, Kentucky, and Rhode Island's laws took effect January 1, 2026, joining a wave of amendments and enforcement actions that force every consumer-facing app to reckon with data collection practices.

Updated May 27

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Pursuing civil enforcement against xAI over Grok

French prosecutors raided X's Paris offices on February 3, 2026, and summoned Elon Musk for questioning—a first for a major social media platform owner in Europe. What began as a complaint about biased algorithms in January 2025 has expanded into a criminal probe. The investigation covers child sexual abuse material, sexually explicit deepfakes, Holocaust denial, and X's artificial intelligence chatbot Grok.

Updated May 26

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Leading California investigation into xAI

For decades, Western democracies debated whether to regulate social media platforms. The UK just stopped debating—and now the United States is joining the fight. After Grok, Elon Musk's AI chatbot, generated an estimated one nonconsensual sexualized image per minute posted directly to X, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic took action. On January 15, X announced it will geoblock Grok from creating images of people in revealing clothing in jurisdictions where it's illegal. This came one day after California Attorney General Rob Bonta opened an investigation into xAI, calling the platform 'a breeding ground for predators.' Meanwhile, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told Parliament that X is 'acting to ensure full compliance,' having removed over 600 accounts and censored 3,500 content items. The alternative: fines up to 10% of global revenue or a complete platform ban.

Updated May 21

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Preparing legal defense of state AI laws

The DOJ's AI Litigation Task Force began operations January 10, 2026 with one mission: kill state AI laws in federal court. Attorney General Pam Bondi's team, consulting with AI czar David Sacks, will challenge comprehensive AI regulations from California, Texas, and Colorado that President Trump's December executive order called unconstitutional burdens on interstate commerce.

Updated May 20