A few Democrats in the California State Assembly had a change of heart Thursday regarding SB 14, a bill enhancing penalties for people convicted of child human trafficking, two days after refusing to vote to pass it out of committee. As we’ve reported, on Tuesday the six Democrats on the Assembly Public Safety Committee refused to vote to advance the bill, killing it for the year. After fierce backlash from the general public and questions about the process from both Gov. Gavin Newsom and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, state Senator Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield), the bill’s author, announced Wednesday evening that Assembly Republicans were going to attempt to bring the bill out of committee on Thursday morning for a floor vote.

Before Republicans could do that, though, Assembly Majority Leader (and Public Safety Committee member) Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) made a motion to suspend committee hearing notice requirements so they could convene a meeting of the Public Safety Committee immediately after the floor session so they could again take up SB 14. At that moment Republican Asm. Heath Flora rose and made the motion to bring the bill to the floor instead. Procedurally, though, that wasn’t going to work. The first vote was on Bryan’s motion, and it passed overwhelmingly given the Democrats’ supermajority.

Before the vote, though, Asm. Flora made himself heard. It’s quite a sight to see the Pride flags still flying on some members’ desks.

Regarding #SB14 on the assembly floor:

Republican @HeathFloraCA: You can choose a team. Pick pedophiles, or children.

Democrat @isaacgbryan: How dare you accuse me of siding with pedophiles after yesterday I sided with pedophiles! pic.twitter.com/xQnfTU7oaP

— Jonathan Zachreson (@JZachreson) July 13, 2023

After the floor session, the shortest committee hearing ever recorded in Sacramento occurred (well, at least to my knowledge). Legislative analyst (and 2022 GOP nominee for Superintendent of Public Instruction) Lance Christensen explained what happened. While reading this, keep in mind that Asm. Bonta is Mia Bonta, wife of California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

[I]t was a short hearing, probably the shortest I’ve ever seen. The chair was prepared to let Asm. Bonta (D-Oakland) speak, but when she refused, Asm. Lackey (R-Palmdale) announced he had some comments.

Without any warning, the chair announced it was a vote only hearing & there would be no presentation from the author of the bill, Sen. Grove or statements from the committee members (despite soliciting comments from Bonta at the beginning). With that, they went into the vote with no discussion, the Chair petulantly shouting his Aye vote; Bonta & Bryan abstaining (then storming out of the room) with the other members sheepishly voting in support.

The bill goes to the Asm. Appropriations Committee in August after the legislative recess (which begins now & goes for a month) before it gets to the floor.

A couple thoughts on this:

-There was no need to go back to committee just for a procedural vote. The Asm. Republican Caucus tried a few ways to have it voted on the floor, but it was clear that the Speaker shut that option down voting in favor to slow the process down.

-By not clearing it off of the legislative decks before the month-long recess, the media is going to have a lot to write about. The Speaker just made it worse for his caucus.

-Bryan & Bonta showed themselves to be extremely out of touch with Californians & their constituents. I hope that voters take notice.

-I thought that it was weird that the bill was voted off of the Senate Floor, 40-0 without a single abstention. It turns out that the bill was put on the Special Consent calendar which traditionally only happens if the bill receives no No votes in committees (check) & has no formal opposition (nope). The bill has significant & persistent opponents, so what happened?

-As far as I can tell, Senate Democrats sent this to the Assembly to die. They knew what Jones-Sawyer would do to the bill (he’s done this on lots of other bills with felony enhancements) which meant they could wipe their hands of the bill while claiming at the same time that they were in full support of the bill (“See, I not only voted for the bill, I am a co-author!”). This is a game they play all the time, the most notorious one being SB 562 (Lara & Atkins) on universal health care.

-Now Senate Democrats are claiming that Qanon is the problem & that human trafficking doesn’t exist. They now have to own a bill they didn’t think would make it through the gauntlet & they aren’t happy about it.

-You thought Hollywood put on a good show. They play second fiddle to the #caleg.

Here’s video of Bryan and Bonta walking out, no doubt because they don’t want to have to interact with normal people.

After strong public backlash for not passing #SB14 out of the Assembly Public Safety Committee yesterday, @MiaBonta & @isaacgbryan still abstain in today’s emergency hearing and quickly walk out. Thankfully the bill passed this time. pic.twitter.com/cM3n4lsF8Z

— Jonathan Zachreson (@JZachreson) July 13, 2023

Before the hearing was even held, Politico’s Lara Korte was (in a totally unbiased way) telling us that by voting against bringing the bill to a floor vote Assembly Democrats weren’t advocating for pedophiles, and tweeting a picture of talking points emailed to her from Smart Justice CA. Korte brings up a perennial issue in trafficking cases – the risk that victims can unintentionally be caught up with criminal charges. However, the talking points from Smart Justice CA claim that under SB 14 minors are at risk of receiving lengthy sentences and a strike, and that’s simply not true. Of course, investigators and prosecutors work to ensure that victims are not re-victimized by being prosecuted for a crime they were essentially forced to commit, and in no case are minors ever given a lengthy sentence or a strike.

To be clear — Assembly Democrats are not advocating for pedophiles.

The issue here is whether to expand the Three Strikes Law to include human trafficking.

Here is the argument Smart Justice CA is making — #caleg pic.twitter.com/rz8hDuUySp

— Lara Korte (@lara_korte) July 13, 2023

Smart Justice CA and Korte – presumably unintentionally – point out a major argument for SB 14, and that’s that under current law people convicted of human trafficking can be sentenced to life in prison (the word “can” is doing some heavy lifting there). but that “trafficking cases are often plead out by prosecutors, leading to shorter sentences.” Well, that’s what SB 14 eliminates – serious felonies cannot be pled down to a probationary sentence without the presence of mitigating circumstances, according to prosecutors. And, if human trafficking of a minor is classified as a strike crime, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and Newsom cannot release the offender early.

Not long after the committee hearing adjourned we started seeing the same messaging – claiming that the concern is that trafficking victims and children could be charged with a felony – from Assembly Democrats, including the Public Safety Committee chair himself, Asm. Reggie Jones-Sawyer.

Human trafficking is a serious crime. But SB14 needs to be fixed. It could charge trafficking victims and children with a felony. We are going to improve this bill and provide justice for victims.

— Reggie Jones-Sawyer (@JonesSawyerAD57) July 13, 2023

Did he even read that tweet? Since when is a child victim of trafficking charged with a felony?

And from the Assembly Majority Leader, who’s so extreme he’s probably to the left of Ilhan Omar:

The people most vulnerable to being charged with trafficking are the victims of trafficking themselves.

Charges are used to leverage their cooperation in prosecution and their survivor status is erased with many currently incarcerated in both youth and adult prisons.

— Isaac G. Bryan (@ib2_real) July 13, 2023

And by the end of the day, “think pieces” were penned by the dutiful scribes at the LA Times.

Column: Support pedophiles or protect children? A false question roils California Legislature. @JonesSawyerAD57 is taking heat for asking the right questions. No one is pro-sex trafficking. But we should strive to get our laws right. https://t.co/f5qvg7kTfz

— Anita Chabria (@anitachabria) July 14, 2023

As Republican Assemblyman Joe Patterson observed:

Every single committee meeting I have been in, Democrats pass out legislation that “still needs work.” A lot of it is just straight up bad. So IMO, that is not the real reason we saw opposition to #SB14.

Fortunately, not all members of the committee were that dug in. Assemblymember Liz Ortega said that she regretted her decision to “vote against legislation targeting really bad people who traffic children was wrong” and vowed to “help get this important legislation passed into law.”

On Tuesday, I made a bad decision. Voting against legislation targeting really bad people who traffic children was wrong.
I regret doing that and I am going to help get this important legislation passed into law.

— Assemblymember Liz Ortega (@AsmLizOrtega) July 13, 2023

As Lance Christensen noted, Jones-Sawyer and his committee were known for roadblocking any bill that increased enhancements for crimes, so all of this was likely a setup. The Assembly goes into a month-long recess at this point, so we can expect the militant anti-incarceration folk to continue to make points, but this also gives the bipartisan and passionately-engaged advocates of the bill time to perfect their strategy.