SAN FRANCISCO | October 30, 2026 — The Liberty Justice Center (LJC) and California Justice Center (CJC) secured a Ninth Circuit ruling on October 29 reversing the dismissal of their client California Policy Center’s (CPC) challenge to California Senate Bill 399, which restricts employers from requiring employees to attend meetings about political or religious matters. The appeals court held that CPC has standing to challenge the law before facing enforcement, allowing its First Amendment lawsuit to proceed.
The two legal centers joined forces to file the federal lawsuit on CPC’s behalf on February 11, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. CPC is a nonprofit that researches California public policy, including education reform and government transparency. Because its work involves researching and discussing state politics, SB 399 threatens to interfere with CPC’s ability to hold mandatory staff meetings about political matters related to its mission, including meetings that encourage employees to exchange ideas and perspectives beyond their individual assignments.
The district court dismissed the case on June 24, 2025, concluding CPC had not established standing to bring its pre-enforcement challenge. The Ninth Circuit reversed, finding that CPC had sufficiently alleged that SB 399 could apply to its planned meetings and that it faced a credible threat of enforcement. Significantly, the court rejected California’s argument that CPC was likely exempt from the law, finding that CPC’s intended political discussions could fall outside exemptions for job-related communications and certain political organizations. The court also emphasized that California’s Labor Commissioner had declined to disavow enforcement against CPC. The appeals court also reversed a subsequent dismissal under Rule 41(b), concluding that dismissal was too harsh when a less drastic alternative was available.
“California cannot threaten an organization with enforcement of a speech-restricting law and then argue that the organization has no right to challenge it,” said Jeffrey M. Schwab, Senior Counsel and Director of Litigation at the Liberty Justice Center. “The Ninth Circuit correctly recognized that the California Policy Center does not have to wait to be punished before defending its First Amendment rights. Now we can return to court and challenge the constitutionality of this law.”
SB 399, signed into law on September 27, 2024, restricts employers from requiring employees to attend meetings involving political or religious communications subject to certain statutory exceptions. CPC alleges that the law limits its ability to hold mandatory employee meetings about political issues central to its work.
“SB 399 was never about protecting workers. It was about turning the workplace into a government-controlled speech zone,” said Will Swaim, CEO of California Policy Center. “Gavin Newsom and his union allies may think they can dictate what employers are allowed to say, but the First Amendment says otherwise. This is a great decision, and we look forward to our day in court.”
The Ninth Circuit’s decision sends the case back to the district court. CPC will continue pursuing its First Amendment challenge and its request to block enforcement of SB 399.
More information on California Policy Center v. Garcia-Brower is available on Liberty Justice Center’s website.