Nick Shirley sues California to stop same-name law targeting his undercover video reporting

WASHINGTON — Fraud muckraker Nick Shirley slapped a lawsuit against California’s attorney general and secretary of state Friday in a bid to stop it from implementing a law named after him that would allow pro-immigration groups to shield their information from public records.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed AB 2624, also known as the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” into law last month, seeking to undermine the tactics used by the breakout YouTube journalist and others like him to expose rampant fraud in Minnesota and elsewhere.

“Nick Shirley is an American patriot,” Gene Hamilton, president of America First Legal, which is suing California on Shirley’s behalf. “He 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 added. “This will not stand.”

The law specifically restricts people and businesses from knowingly publicly posting the “personal information” of people involved in “designated immigration support services.” It also allows those people to seek civil relief against individuals who violate that rule.

The “Stop Nick Shirley Act” doesn’t become operative until Oct. 7, 2027, but America First Legal argued it is still causing him harm and chilling his free speech rights by casting a cloud of uncertainty over what he can say due to its broad and vague language.

Personal information covered in the law includes phone numbers, employment history, financial data, home addresses and more. It can apply to nonprofit groups, legal firms, health care facilities, and other organizations that help immigrants.

Shirley’s suit accuses California of undermining the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as well as the Ex Post Facto Clauses of the Constitution, restricting the government from enacting retroactive criminal laws.

The suit drew attention to how California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) denounced Shirley’s accusations of fraud in the Golden State on Feb. 5 and that his wife, Assemblywoman Mia Bonta, introduced the “Stop Nick Shirley Act” on Feb. 20.

“AB 2624 chills Mr. Shirley’s intended speech by creating uncertainty concerning whether his publication of truthful, lawfully obtained information about individuals associated with immigration-services organizations could subject him to civil liability,” the lawsuit argued.

“That uncertainty extends to speech he has already published, as Mr. Shirley cannot determine whether AB 2624 exposes him to liability for information he previously disseminated.”

America First Legal, which was founded by White House deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, filed the lawsuit in the District Court for the Eastern District of California.

The group accused California of viewpoint discrimination, because the law doesn’t appear to extend those same protections to groups that are critical of immigration.

The suit also noted that Shirley fully intends to keep up his investigative work in California and is seeking to block the Stop Nick Shirley Act.

Shirley went viral last year for a video report he did about welfare fraud in Minnesota in which daycare centers stole millions of dollars worth of taxpayer funds.

The 24-year-old showed up to daycare centers, including ones set up by Somali immigrants, and highlighted how many of them didn’t have children being looked after despite the state money they received.

One famous example he uncovered was the daycare learning center erroneously spelled “Quality Learing Center” that pocketed some $1.9 million from taxpayers. 

Overall, Minnesotans were scammed out of about $1 billion in theft, prosecutors confirmed in cases involving money for daycares, food assistance, housing support, and autism programs, and more. One former federal prosecutor estimated the fraud could’ve been as high as $9 billion, though that figure has gotten some pushback.

Shirley has since gotten to work on unearthing fraudulent activity elsewhere in the country, including California. His efforts inspired the Trump administration to launch the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud, led by Vice President JD Vance.

In California, Shirley has reported on how the migrant crisis has impacted the Golden State.

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