California Attorney General Rob Bonta today highlighted the California Department of Justice’s (DOJ) efforts to protect and defend the people and resources of California over the past year. In 2023, DOJ worked to improve the lives of Californians by protecting public health and safety and advancing justice for all by enforcing and defending laws touching nearly all facets of life, including healthcare, the environment, housing, consumer protection, civil rights, and criminal justice.
“At the California Department of Justice, 2023 was a year of accountability: We took bold action to hold polluters, corporate giants, and bad actors accountable, and worked every day to build stronger, safer communities while working proactively to find solutions to some of the largest problems facing Californians, from gun violence to threats to our health and safety,” said Attorney General Bonta. “I’m proud of the nearly 6,000 DOJ employees who work day in and day out on behalf of the people of California, and all that we have accomplished together. As we look ahead to 2024, we will continue to advance Californians' fundamental rights, work toward environmental and economic justice, hold bad actors accountable, and beyond.”
KEY ACTIONS
FENTANYL CRACKDOWN: Joined the FAST task force to address fentanyl trafficking from the U.S. and Mexico border and continued ongoing efforts to remove fentanyl from our streets, through arrests and seizures
COMBATTING RETAIL CRIME: Announced a first-of-its-kind agreement between retailers and online marketplaces to address retail crime, and continued ongoing efforts to dismantle retail theft rings
TACKLING THE HOUSING CRISIS: Made way for the development of thousands of potential additional units of housing by putting local governments on notice for violating state housing laws
TAKING ON BIG TECH: Filed a lawsuit against Meta to protect youth online
FIGHTING GUN VIOLENCE: Unveiled the Office of Gun Violence Prevention’s first-ever data report highlighting California’s successes in preventing gun violence, and shining light further areas for improvement
DEFENDING REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS: Announced a groundbreaking lawsuit against a national anti-abortion group and a chain of five crisis pregnancy centers for using misleading claims to lure in and deceive pregnant people
CLIMATE ACTION: Filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against Big Oil for engaging in a decades-long campaign of deception about the climate harms of their products
PROTECTING CONSUMERS: Sponsored successful legislation to protect Californians’ pocketbooks by banning hidden fees
SAFEGUARDING PUBLIC HEALTH: Secured $462 million settlement with JUUL for fueling the youth tobacco crisis
Fighting Crime and Supporting Victims and Survivors: Attorney General Bonta worked together with local, state, and federal law enforcement partners to protect California’s public safety by cracking down on theft and illegal narcotics, dismantling organized criminal activity, and holding bad actors accountable. The Attorney General announced major law enforcement operations across the state, from tackling human trafficking in San Mateo County and San Diego, to dismantling criminal organizations in Los Angeles, Stockton, and Fresno. The Attorney General also stepped-up efforts to target sexual predators while protecting victims and survivors in their right to restitution and to see their traffickers held accountable.
A key focus of 2023 was addressing organized retail crime by bringing charges against an organized smash and grab group, charging a group responsible for cargo thefts targeting Microsoft products, and making arrests of an organized retail crime group targeting Apple Stores. Attorney General Bonta went a step further this year by announcing a first-of-its-kind agreement between retailers and online marketplaces to address retail crime.
Attorney General Bonta made combatting the fentanyl crisis a top priority. Since April 2022, the California DOJ has seized approximately 10,834,302 fentanyl pills, 2,951 pounds of powder, and made over 280 arrests related to fentanyl. In addition, DOJ joined the Fentanyl Abatement and Suppression Team (FAST) to address fentanyl trafficking from the U.S. and Mexico border and the San Francisco task force to address fentanyl trafficking in the Bay Area. The Attorney General provided critical support to Placer County, Fresno and Merced County through the Bureau of Investigation to arrest and apprehend fentanyl dealers and seize fentanyl from communities.
In 2023, California Attorney General Bonta released the 2022 Hate Crime in California Report, and amid an alarming rise in hate crimes highlighted resources to combat hate, as well as a new law enforcement bulletin to assist law enforcement in combatting hate crimes. The Attorney General continued to engage with local leaders through hate crime roundtables in Bakersfield, Fresno, Anaheim and Irvine.
Attorney General Bonta sent a strong message that those who commit fraud will be caught and pay for their crime. Numerous charges were brought against individuals for embezzlement, tax evasion, and recycling fraud. The Attorney General announced the establishment of the first-ever Post-Conviction Justice Unit, addressed illegal cannabis and promoted the awareness of the missing and murdered indigenous peoples’ crisis.
Tackling California's Housing Crisis: As California continued to face a housing shortage and affordability crisis of epic proportions, Attorney General Bonta’s Housing Justice Team ramped up its enforcement of state housing production, consumer protection, and housing discrimination laws, putting local governments from Huntington Beach and Coronado, to San Bernardino and Elk Grove on notice for violations of state housing laws. The Attorney General also worked to enforce obligations under state law, like the Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA), requiring local governments to plan and zone for more housing.
As housing costs continue to overly burden household budgets, Attorney General Bonta fought to protect tenants’ and homeowners’ rights and prevent housing discrimination. Attorney General Bonta reminded California tenants of their rights and protections under state law, including limits on rent increases, announced statewide guidance to address Crime-Free Housing policies that disproportionally discriminate against people of color, survivors of domestic violence, people with disabilities, and justice-involved individuals, and brought financial relief to tenants who endured illegal rent increases and evictions by enforcing the Tenant Protection Act against Green Valley Corporation.
Protecting Reproductive Freedom and the Public Health: This year, Attorney General Bonta continued to fiercely defend and protect the reproductive freedom and liberties of Californians and people across the nation. In September, he sued a national anti-abortion group and a chain of five crisis pregnancy centers for using false claims to lure in pregnant patients and mislead them. He announced the results of investigations into anti-implicit bias training for pregnancy care providers, and into reproductive healthcare access in county jails. Emboldened by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, anti-abortion states focused their onslaught on the FDA's decades-old approval of mifepristone, widely used for medication abortion. From joining forces with states across the nation on briefs in the Fifth Circuit appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court, to publicly countering the lies and empty rhetoric of anti-mifepristone forces and reminding Californians of the laws that protect their access to medication abortion and other reproductive care, Attorney General Bonta fought the partisan attacks on mifepristone aggressively on every front and with every tool at his disposal. He also led nationwide fights to push for increased access to birth control coverage, protect Americans’ access to abortions during life-threatening medical emergencies, and support stronger protections for reproductive health data privacy.
Attorney General Bonta fought for Californians’ rights to affordable, equitable healthcare and protected Californians against threats to the public health. He sued the nation's largest insulin makers and pharmacy benefit managers for driving up the cost of the lifesaving drug by leveraging their market power to unlawfully overcharge patients, and as Californians grappled with the ongoing fallout from the opioid epidemic, secured billions of dollars in nationwide settlements with pharmacies CVS and Walgreens and manufacturers Allergan and Teva for their role in the opioid crisis. The settlements are expected to bring in much needed funding to address the needs of California's communities. He also worked to protect the public – particularly youth and vulnerable populations – from harmful and addictive tobacco products by taking legal action against two California online retailers of e-cigarettes over violations of state and federal laws, and by securing a $462 million multistate settlement agreement with electronic cigarette maker, JUUL, Labs, Inc. that prohibits the company from targeting youth in its advertising and promotion.
Taking on Corporate Polluters and Protecting the Environment: In 2023, the Attorney General took on corporate polluters and fought to protect the health and safety of California communities through innovative settlements and major lawsuits. In September, Attorney General Bonta filed a landmark lawsuit against five of the largest oil and gas companies and a trade association for engaging in a decades-long campaign of deception about the climate harms of their products. He announced a settlement with Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) over misleading, unqualified environmental marketing claims the company made that natural gas is “renewable,” and reached settlements with Kaiser for improper hazardous waste disposal, as well as with several owners and operators of gas stations for violating state environmental laws.
He continued his ongoing work to combat the harmful effects of PFAS, calling for 3M and Dupont to pay more for contaminating Americans’ drinking water supply with these toxic forever chemicals, and issuing an enforcement advisory letter to manufacturers, distributors, and sellers of food packaging and cookware, reminding them of their obligations under Assembly Bill 1200, which restricts the presence of PFAS in food packaging and imposes labeling disclosure requirements for cookware, as well as a consumer alert with tips for reducing PFAS exposures.
Recognizing that certain communities endure a disproportionate share of environmental pollution, Attorney General Bonta’s Bureau of Environmental Justice sent CEQA letters, reached innovative settlements, and issued guidance to address historic and ongoing inequities in land use decisions and beyond. In September, he announced a settlement with the Port of Oakland and Eagle Rock Aggregates, securing binding commitments to mitigate the Eagle Rock project’s air quality impacts and provide other benefits for West Oakland residents, raised serious legal concerns about the environmental and housing impacts of a proposed warehouse development plan in the Inland Valley, and secured settlements that reduce wildfire ignition and evacuation risks and conserve sensitive ecosystems. He also issued guidance to local governments on promoting environmental justice for marginalized communities across California.
Addressing Gun Violence: Attorney General Bonta continued his leadership with a strong, statewide effort to put an end to gun violence. He took action to provide crucial data necessary to continue our fight against gun violence by securing a court decision enabling vital data sharing with gun violence researchers, and releasing two inaugural reports out of the Office of Gun Violence Prevention. The first report focused on gun violence in California highlighted California’s successes in preventing gun violence and shined a light on successful strategies and further areas for improvement. The second report focused on domestic violence and showed that California has made substantial long-term progress in reducing the incidence of domestic violence involving firearms but it increased during the pandemic. It emphasized the importance of Domestic Violence Restraining Orders for survivors’ safety and gun violence prevention.
The Attorney General worked on the ground to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals, and announced the 2022 APPS report. He supported stronger federal firearm laws and announced the seizure of illegal weapons in Visalia and Los Angeles. Attorney General Bonta also fought to defend California’s gun laws by supporting the large capacity magazine ban, the assault weapons ban, age-based firearm restrictions, the Unsafe Handgun Act, and urging the Supreme Court to uphold protections for survivors of abuse against gun violence. Attorney General Bonta's sponsored legislation, Senate Bill 2, which strengthens California’s concealed carry weapons restrictions was signed into law.
Safeguarding the Civil Rights of All: Throughout the year, Attorney General Bonta worked tirelessly to protect the civil rights of people in California and across the country. Amidst unprecedented attacks on the LGBTQ+ community across the nation, Attorney General Bonta stood up for the rights of LGBTQ+ people to live, work, and pursue education free from discrimination: from fighting forced outing policies in Chino Valley and across the state to challenging bans on inclusive curricula and textbooks in classrooms. Outside of California, the Attorney General stood up against Idaho legislation undermining transgender students’ constitutional rights, and joined multiple amicus briefs in support of gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The Attorney General worked to the safeguard Californians’ civil rights through stipulated judgements with Kern County addressing free-speech violations, and to reform the Vallejo Police Department’s policies and practices; opened civil rights investigations into the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office and Antioch Police Department; and through the Racial Justice Bureau, supported the work of the Reparations Task Force in issuing its historic final report on the harms of slavery and systemic discrimination of African Americans. He took action to protect workers, launching an historic investigation into gender discrimination in the National Football League, fought for the rights of transportation workers, and immigrant children. He also took action to uphold voter rights by opening an investigation into Butte County’s redistricting process, and standing up in court for disenfranchised persons.
Protecting Consumers, Preserving Competition and Taking on Bad Corporate Actors: In 2023, Attorney General Bonta fought to protect consumers and build a more fair and competitive economy. The Attorney General aggressively enforced state and federal antitrust laws, joining US DOJ in a lawsuit to challenge the anticompetitive merger of Spirit and JetBlue, continuing his prosecution of Amazon for blocking price competition, and joining a lawsuit against Agri Stats for facilitating meat processors’ unlawful increase on the prices Californians pay for chicken, pork, and turkey.
In this digital age, Attorney General Bonta worked aggressively to protect youth and California families online. He co-led a bipartisan coalition of 33 attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against Meta for designing and deploying harmful features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children and teens to their mental and physical detriment, and later celebrated the release of a damning unredacted complaint in that case. He also continued his defense of California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, a California law requiring companies to prioritize the online privacy, safety, and well-being of children over commercial interests, and filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court defending the right of government entities to engage with social media companies to protect the public.
Attorney General Bonta also secured settlements and sponsored legislation to protect hardworking California families and their pocketbooks. In 2023, he sponsored successful legislation to ban hidden fees as well as legislation to compensate victims of consumer protection violations. He announced a $93 million settlement against Google regarding its location-privacy practices, and a $700 million settlement with Google for monopolizing Android App Distribution.
Protecting California’s Elders and Medi-Cal Program: In 2023, Attorney General Bonta worked to protect the safety and well-being of California's elder and dependent adults by bringing legal action against bad actors who committed neglect, abuse and fraud against them. He issued a consumer alert, as well as new guidance for mandated reporters who play a critical role in safeguarding this vulnerable population. Attorney General Bonta also protected the integrity of the state's Medi-Cal program by carrying out investigations, arrests, and prosecutions against medical providers who illegally defrauded Medi-Cal. In August, he announced the arrest of a Santa Clara County doctor for an alleged illegal prescription scheme and secured the sentencing of a Southern California doctor for prescribing medically unnecessary medications. He also secured an over $215 million settlement against a national healthcare company for allegedly falsely reporting higher prescription drug costs; secured a nearly $11.4 million settlement with the owner of one of California’s largest chains of pain management clinics; and announced a $3.8 million settlement against a Riverside nursing facility accused of paying illegal kickbacks to doctors.
These ongoing efforts are made possible not only by partners at the federal, state, and local level, but by the hard work and dedication of the thousands of people employed at DOJ. They include lawyers, special agents, researchers, information technology technicians, program analysts, legal secretaries, field representatives, scientists, and more.
Original source can be found here.