Newsom Vetoes Eminent Domain Reparations Bill

Protesters calling for the passage of reparations bills gather Aug. 31 in the Capitol rotunda in Sacramento, California. Travis Gillmore/The Epoch Times

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Sept. 25 that would have created a process for Californians to apply for compensation or the return of property that was taken from a former owner or their family member through actions that were racially motivated.

Senate Bill 1050—introduced by Sen. Steven Bradford—would have allowed dispossessed owners, or their direct descendants, to apply for consideration by the state to have their land returned or to be fairly compensated through payment or other property if the land is no longer controlled by the agency that seized it.

The governor highlighted the lack of a state agency to follow through on the bill’s mandates.

“I thank the author for his commitment to redressing past racial injustices,” Newsom said in his veto letter. “However, this bill tasks a nonexistent state agency to carry out its various provisions and requirements, making it impossible to implement.”

Critics said they were “deeply disappointed” with the veto and said the bill was an important first step toward compensating victims of injustice.

“The families affected by these actions deserve restitution, and the failure to pass this bill is an injustice in itself,” the Coalition for a Just and Equitable California—a nonprofit seeking to secure reparations for descendants of slaves—said in a Sept. 26 X post.

In what reparations advocates said was a surprise move, on the last day of the legislative session on Aug. 31, some lawmakers in the Legislative Black Caucus pulled two reparations-related bills, including Bradford’s Assembly Bill 1403, which would have established the California American Freedmen Affairs Agency. The proposed agency would have been responsible for implementing reparations programs, such as the eminent domain bill vetoed by Newsom.

Bradford’s office told The Epoch Times on the same day that the senator, who is the vice chair of the caucus, did not want the bills to be pulled.

Dozens of protesters lined the hallway of the Capitol rotunda for about eight hours after the bills’ demise. The caucus issued a statement on the same day, saying it pulled SB 1403 because the bill would cede legislative oversight authority.

The caucus promised to reintroduce a similar bill in 2025.

SB 1050, the eminent domain bill vetoed by the governor, passed the legislature Aug. 28 on a 72–0 vote in the Assembly and 38–0 in the Senate.

No groups were listed as opposing the bill in legislative analyses, while dozens of organizations—including the American Civil Liberties Union California Action, the Bay Area Regional Health Inequities Initiative, and the Greater Sacramento Urban League—local governments—including the City of Chula Vista, and the board of supervisors from Los Angeles and San Diego Counties, among others—and individuals offered support.

“While we cannot change the past, we can act now in the present to right historic wrongs by identifying and returning land that was unjustly taken,” the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors said in a legislative analysis. “It is essential to ensure property owners’ rights and public welfare by providing fair compensation for any private land or property seizure under the authority of eminent domain.”

If the bill had become law, the Assembly Appropriations Committee calculated cost pressures in the low millions of dollars annually to fund the agency responsible for processing and investigating claims, with other costs to state and local funds potentially reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on how many claims were made and the total compensation amounts.

The Epoch Times reached out to Bradford and Newsom for comment but did not hear back before publication.