California Made Two HUGE Changes That Will Protect Children And Reward Courage

In the final days of September 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two laws that each took a long time coming and each matter in ways that extend well beyond California. The first formally bans child marriage in the state, making California the 18th state in the country to establish an absolute minimum age of 18 for marriage, and ending a situation in which California was one of only three states alongside New Mexico and Mississippi where a child of any age could legally marry with parental consent and a judge's approval. Advocates have been fighting for this change for nine years, having introduced the first version of the legislation in 2017 only to see it watered down after opposition from civil liberties groups raised concerns about restricting minors' access to legal protections. Subsequent bills died in committee in 2023 and 2024. This year, Planned Parenthood, which had previously opposed such bans, did not take a position against the bill for the first time, removing a significant obstacle that had blocked earlier attempts. Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, one of the bill's authors, said on the Assembly floor that children are children and marriage is an adult decision, and that this was the legislature that would finally finish the work those who came before them had started. A report from the International Center for Research on Women found that teenage girls who are married are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to drop out of high school, and more likely to develop serious health conditions including diabetes and cancer. The governor's statement said simply: today, California kids are safer than ever before.

The second law signed that week addresses something equally overdue on the other side of the justice system: what happens to people who fight California's wildfires while incarcerated, and what they are owed when they leave prison. Incarcerated firefighters are responsible for nearly half of all emergency hours spent fighting California's wildfires, working 24-hour days in 90-plus degree heat alongside professional Cal Fire crews, doing the same dangerous and backbreaking work for a fraction of the pay. When they leave prison, the doors that should be open to them given that experience are largely closed, partly because the credentials they received on release were inconsistent, sometimes nonexistent, and not formatted in ways that matched what Cal Fire or other fire departments actually required. Assembly Bill 2483, authored by Assemblymember Sade Elhawary of Los Angeles, standardizes those credentials so that by 2028 they will match the formal requirements for entry-level positions at Cal Fire, and gives formerly incarcerated firefighters a hiring preference for those jobs, a pathway to a career that pays a six-figure income and includes a state pension. The previous version of this legislation proposed a quota, which the Cal Fire union opposed. This version provides a preference, not a guarantee, which brought the union on board.

The story behind the bill has a face, and his name is Royal Ramey. While serving time in 2013, Ramey fought the Rim Fire, one of the largest wildfires in California history, which burned more than a quarter of a million acres of the Stanislaus National Forest and Yosemite National Park. He worked around the clock, sometimes past 24 hours, clearing debris and holding fire lines. He fell in love with the work. When he left prison in 2014, he had a certificate of completion from his firefighting program that he was too ashamed to show anyone, afraid employers would recognize it as a prison document. He enrolled in a civilian fire academy instead, worked his way through the US Forest Service and then Cal Fire itself, and eventually founded the nonprofit Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program, which worked with Elhawary to get this year's bill across the finish line. He said the bill tells incarcerated firefighters something they have rarely been told directly: that their hard-earned experience counts. Both laws signed this week are about the same thing, from two different directions. One says that children deserve protection from adults who would use legal institutions to harm them. The other says that people who put their lives on the line to protect California from fire deserve to have that service recognized and rewarded when they come home. California did both things in the same week.

Source:https://calmatters.org/politics/2026/09/child-marriage-ban-new-law/