California law forces big companies to search for slavery-era ties, publish results
by The Washington Times AI News Desk · The Washington TimesCalifornia Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a law requiring large companies to search their records for ties to slavery and report the results under oath. Reparations advocates are hailing it as a milestone, but it won’t take effect until lawmakers pay for it.
Assembly Bill 2599, the Truth in Disclosure Act, was approved Sept. 30. CalMatters reported that no other state requires corporations to account for their historical role in the slave economy, according to advocates.
The law covers businesses operating in California with more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts that existed, or had a predecessor that existed, on or before Dec. 31, 1964. Under the bill text, covered companies must verify under penalty of perjury that they searched their own records and those of related entities. The bill defines those as parents or subsidiaries that do business in California, plus predecessors in interest. The search covers transactions from 1849 forward involving the sale or lease of enslaved people, their use as collateral for loans or insurance, and related policies. Filings must name the enslaved people and slaveholders who appear in those records.
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Affidavits go to the state Civil Rights Department, which must build a public, searchable database and keep the material online indefinitely. The requirements become operative only after the Legislature appropriates money. Companies already doing business in California as of Jan. 1, 2028, must file by Jan. 15, 2029, or by Jan. 15 of the year after the database is built, whichever is later. Companies that begin operating in the state afterward face a separate timeline. Covered companies that bid on state contracts of $100,000 or more must also certify that they have filed.
Kristin Nimmers, policy and campaign manager for the California Black Power Network, told Fox the law is a “historic step toward corporate transparency and accountability.” She said her coalition will use it as momentum to push the state’s broader reparations recommendations. Democratic Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, who wrote the bill, told CalMatters he expects filings from agriculture, banking, insurance and finance. He said lawmakers can decide what to do once the public has a full accounting.
Insurance groups opposed the measure, arguing it duplicates a 2000 law that required insurers to research and report slavery-era policies. The new law lets insurers include that earlier documentation in their filings.
The signing came as Mr. Newsom has resisted broader reparations measures. He vetoed a bill by Assemblymember Tina McKinnor, a Democrat, that would have exempted future reparations payments from state income tax, citing fiscal uncertainty. Ms. McKinnor said she plans to bring the legislation back in 2027. The state’s reparations task force issued more than 100 recommendations in a 2023 report.
The Republican National Committee’s press secretary criticized the new law as political, saying Mr. Newsom should focus on affordability, according to Fox News Digital.
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