A federal judge issued a tentative ruling Friday that blocks half of a California gun bill that state legislators, at the behest of Gov. Gavin Newsom, modeled after the controversial Texas law allowing private citizens to sue abortion providers.
The part of the bill — signed by Newsom in July and set to take effect Jan. 1 — being challenged was a fee-shifting provision that would make it extremely financially risky to bring any lawsuit fighting California's strict gun laws. Just as Texas lawmakers had used the provision to shield their abortion law from legal challenges, the California provision made it so any individual or group challenging a Second Amendment regulation would have to win each and every one of their claims, or else pay the government's legal fees.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, calling such fee-shifting provisions "abhorrent," issued a tentative oral ruling siding with the gun rights groups challenging the provision in two separate lawsuits. He said he'll formalize his tentative ruling with a written order issuing an injunction that bars the enactment of California's fee-shifting provision.
