The Persuasion Lab wrote about our free speech victory in Kohls v. Bonta.
Litigation began within minutes of signature — literally. Kohls, represented by the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, filed in the Eastern District of California the same day; X Corp., The Babylon Bee, and Rumble followed, and the cases were consolidated as Kohls v. Bonta, No. 2:24-cv-02527-JAM-CKD (E.D. Cal.) [8][9]. The rulings were a rout for the state. Senior Judge John A. Mendez preliminarily enjoined AB 2839 on October 2, 2024, barely two weeks after enactment. On August 20, 2025, he permanently struck down AB 2655 in its entirety — without even reaching the First Amendment — holding it preempted by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, writing that no part of the statute could be salvaged [7][10]. Days later he permanently invalidated AB 2839 on Constitutional grounds, finding that it discriminated on the basis of content, viewpoint, and speaker and targeted protected speech [9][11].
Read more at The Persuasion Lab.
