FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: John Kabateck, California State Director, john@kabstrat.com
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, anthony.malandra@nfib.org

SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 3, 2025—California’s largest and leading small business association today commented on U.S. District Judge Daniel Calabretta’s recent temporary ruling that Senate Bill 399, passed in 2024 and which took effect this year, is preempted under the National Labor Relations Act.

“NFIB is encouraged to see that California’s small business owners’ First Amendment Right to free speech in their own places of business, has been reaffirmed in a preliminary injunction by a federal judge,” said John Kabateck, California state director for NFIB in California, “Senate Bill 399, which sought to chill political speech in private sector businesses has had a reckoning not just with federal preemption but with the United States Constitution.

“I commend the California Chamber of Commerce and the California Restaurant Association, our coalition partners in opposition to SB 399, for their success in advancing this through the court. It should never have had to come to this, but our state is going through a peculiar period of thinking federal law doesn’t apply to it, as this week’s signing of Assembly Bill 288 (McKinnor) also proves.”

Background

On AB 288, the bill seeks to enforce workers’ collective bargaining rights for certain private sector employees when the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) fails to act in a “timely manner,” thereby usurping federal authority. It would give these enforcement powers to the state Public Employment Relations Board (PERS).

On SB 399, “U.S. District Judge Daniel Calabretta ruled that Senate Bill 399 — which the [California] chamber said limits employers from talking about religious or political issues — is preempted under the National Labor Relations Act and violates the free speech clause of the First Amendment … His ruling temporarily pauses the law’s enforcement,” reports the Courthouse News Service.

Keep up with the latest California small business news at www.nfib.com. Follow us on X @NFIB_CA and on Facebook @NFIB.CA.

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For over 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.

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