California is now the fifth state this year to let residents sue any government official for constitutional violations — meaning more than 70 million Americans now live in a state with this kind of legal protection.

Today California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 747, the No Kings Act. California is now the fifth state this year to give residents a universal remedy when federal law enforcement officers violate their constitutional rights, joining New York, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

The Act is a landmark piece of legislation that creates a state-law cause of action that allows any person to sue a federal, state, or local government officer who violates the U.S. Constitution. At a time when democratic norms face unprecedented pressure, this law provides the necessary legal guardrails to ensure constitutional accountability. “In a country where the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land, whether Americans should have a remedy for wrongs committed by governmental officials should turn on whether the Constitution was violated — not what badge the officer has. We thank Governor Newsom for signing the No Kings Act so that Californians harmed by any officer’s misconduct — whether federal, state, or local — can have a real day in court,” said Cameron Kistler of Protect Democracy United.

The passage of legislation like this is central to Protect Democracy’s mission of preventing American democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government. The No Kings Act closes a loophole in how federal, state, and local officials are held accountable to the Constitution. While a federal law, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, allows people to sue state and local officials for constitutional violations, no equivalent federal law exists for suing federal officials. Instead, people injured by federal officials have historically relied on a “Bivens action” — a limited, implied right to sue directly under the Constitution.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court gutted the Bivens remedy in Egbert v. Boule (2022). The result has been that federal officers often have de facto immunity and cannot be sued for damages, even for willful violations of constitutional rights. That creates an accountability gap with no good justification: a state or local officer who commits a constitutional violation can be sued under § 1983, while a federal officer who does the same thing often cannot be sued at all. SB 747 solves that problem by creating a single universal cause of action allowing Californians to sue any person who, acting under color of law, deprives them of rights secured by the United States Constitution.  

SB 747 is co-sponsored by Protect Democracy United, Prosecutors Alliance Action, and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice.