• Gov. Gavin Newsom recently signed new state legislation that was partly based on a 2024 Santa Barbara County grand jury investigation, according to Assemblymember Gregg Hart’s (D-Santa Barbara) office. Authored by Hart, the Forensic Accountability, Custodial Transparency, and Safety (FACTS) Act of 2025 requires medical investigations of all deaths that occur in county jails, state prisons, and law enforcement custody—including immigrant detention deaths that occur in the jurisdiction of a county coroner—across California. Hart’s office described the FACTS Act (Assembly Bill 1108) as acting from the Santa Barbara County grand jury’s 2024 findings that identified real and perceived conflicts of interest in the investigations of multiple deaths that occurred at the Santa Barbara County Jail. California is one of three states that allow elected sheriffs to simultaneously serve as coroners. In 48 counties across California, elected sheriffs are tasked with investigating all suspicious and unattended deaths—including deaths that occur in their custody. In the aftermath of a death in a jail, the same officials responsible for keeping incarcerated individuals safe can be tasked with conducting death investigations and medical examinations. “AB 1108 will promote trust and transparency, ensuring that medical doctors can independently determine the facts when someone dies in custody,” Hart said at an Oct. 15 press conference. “This law will improve the process for all parties involved, ensuring fairness and justice.” Lea Villegas, assistant public defender for the county of Santa Barbara, described the law as a way to give the community “confidence that every life in custody is valued and that every loss will be dignified by an objective examination of the facts leading up to that tragedy.”
• U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California) and Gary Peters (D-Michigan) filed an amicus brief in mid-October in support of a lawsuit against the Trump administration centered on voter rolls and data privacy. Padilla and Peters’ brief in League of Women Voters v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) endorses the plaintiff’s motion for a stay and a preliminary injunction to stop the Trump administration’s “widespread collection of Americans’ legally protected data,” according to Padilla’s office. The brief argues that the DHS’s overhaul of the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program “to sift through voter rolls with no direct notice to Congress” violates the Privacy Act and lacks legal authority. “DHS is actively advertising and encouraging states to use the overhauled SAVE program for voter verification, and several states have begun to do so, running tens of millions of voter files through this expanded system,” the brief states. “These actions—which, again, are occurring outside the bounds of the law—create an intolerable risk that eligible American voters will be disenfranchised and perhaps even wrongly prosecuted for their alleged ineligibility. This cannot continue.”
• U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff (D-California), Tim Kaine (D-Virginia), and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) recently introduced a war powers resolution to block the use of U.S. Armed Forces from engaging in hostilities within or against Venezuela, following reports that the Trump administration is considering land strikes inside the country. “In recent weeks we have seen increasingly concerning movements and reporting that undermine claims that this is merely about stopping drug smugglers,” Schiff wrote in an Oct. 17 statement. “Congress has not authorized military force against Venezuela. And we must assert our authority to stop the United States from being dragged—intentionally or accidentally—into full-fledged war in South America.”
This article appears in Oct 23 – Oct 30, 2025.