California companies now have to hire researchers to dig through records going back to 1849 — and swear to what they find under penalty of perjury. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 2599, the Truth in Disclosure Act, into law on Sept. 30, Fox News Digital reported, creating a first-in-the-nation mandate for large corporations doing business in the Golden State.
Here’s what it requires: any business with more than $100 million in annual worldwide gross receipts that existed — or had a predecessor entity in operation — on or before Dec. 31, 1964 must investigate its own history and publicly disclose any links to chattel slavery. That means records on the purchase or sale of enslaved people, human beings used as collateral for loans, slave-related insurance policies, and other financial transactions tied to the system. Covered firms must file sworn affidavits with the California Civil Rights Department, with the records made publicly accessible through a state digital platform. Get it wrong or tamper with the records, and you’re facing perjury.
The bill was authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Ladera Heights). Newsom signed it on camera in an Oct. 1 interview with civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson, telling Fox News Digital the point is accountability through public disclosure: “Accountability, as Bryan said, starts with the truth.”
Insurance companies opposed the bill all the way through the legislature. Their argument: this duplicates a law passed in 2000 under which insurers already submitted records on their slavery-era involvement — or confirmed they had none.
What they’re not telling you
Start with what this bill does NOT do: it pays nobody a single dollar. Not one payment to any person, anywhere. It doesn’t even start until the California Legislature appropriates money to run it — which hasn’t happened — and the first filings aren’t due until January 15, 2029. What it does do, immediately, is hand corporate lawyers, compliance consultants, and archivists a multi-year gold rush, since every covered company now needs to investigate its own records under threat of criminal perjury charges.
And listen to who celebrated. Reparations activists didn’t call this transparency — they called it a weapon. Kristin Nimmers of the California Black Power Network told Fox News Digital the signature marks a “big important victory,” saying the goal is to identify the connections “from slavery to current wealth of individuals and current wealth of corporations.” Translation: this is step one in building the target list for future reparations lawsuits. Meanwhile Newsom has repeatedly blocked actual cash payouts to anyone. So the state gets a shakedown pipeline, companies get a perjury trap, and the people the activists claim to speak for get nothing but press conferences.
Video: Fox Business on YouTube — “‘PERFORMATIVE STUPIDITY’: Newsom signs slavery disclosure law.”
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