Independent journalist and YouTube star Nick Shirley, along with the America First Legal Foundation, are suing to block the enforcement of a new law in the state of California that would place heavy restrictions on journalists and independent auditors to record and report instances of fraud. The case, Shirley v. Bonta, was officially filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, located in the city of Sacramento.
The suit was filed against Attorney General Rob Bonta and Secretary of State Shirley Weber on September 4, 2026. Shirley is a well-known online reporter who has gone under cover numerous times and uncovered massive fraud in the state of Minnesota in December 2025. The videos revealed that a number of Somali-operated daycare centers in Minneapolis were fraudulent, with no students, yet were drawing funds from the government to fund the operation.
He later conducted similar investigations in the Golden State, discovering that a number of Armenian-run hospices and immigration-related organizations were also stacked to the gills with fraud. Shirley’s YouTube, X account, Instagram, and TikTok have pulled in millions of viewers, thanks to the content and the journalist’s willingness to put himself out there to find the truth.
According to a report from Trending News Politics, the legislation that Shirley is attempting to block, which has been referred to as the “Stop Nick Shirley Act,” is built on the foundation of the Safe at Home program, which has been in operation since 1999. The program enables those who are eligible — which includes survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, human trafficking, elder abuse, and certain “health care workers” — to use a substitute mailing address administered by the California Secretary of State.
Government agencies will accept this address in lieu of a residential address in various public records, which ultimately protects people from threats, according to claims made by the state. If the new bill becomes law, eligibility will be extended to designated immigration support services providers, their employees, volunteers at nonprofit organizations, community legal clinics, law offices, and health facilities who face “threats, harassment, or violence” connected to their work.
Applicants must then register with the state and document a relevant threat or incident within the prior year. The legislation also bans knowingly posting, selling, or sharing a participant’s personal information or image online with the intent to facilitate harassment, violence, credible threats, or to place individuals in “reasonable fear for their safety.”
In other words, it’s an attempt to provide protection for fraudsters against someone like Nick Shirley. All they have to do is make a claim that he is harassing them or using their images online in videos and social media posts and he will face legal consequences. These places don’t want their fraud exposed and a law like this stops undercover journalists from being able to investigate them and report their findings.
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The lawsuit also alleges that AB2624 slaps content-based and viewpoint-discriminatory restrictions on speech that are in direct violation of the First Amendment. It claims that the legislation is overbroad and vague under the Fourteenth Amendment and serves as an ex post facto law under Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution.
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