The governor shows flash of moderation

Gov. Gavin Newsom is at his best when he serves as a check on the much more radical California Legislature. On Friday, Newsom vetoed three bills favored by the progressive wing of his party.

The first was Assembly Bill 957, introduced by Asm. Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, which would have required courts overseeing child custody disputes to consider whether a parent affirms a child's chosen gender identity.

Here, Newsom took an appropriately restrained view of how the branches of government should meddle with each other. “I urge caution when the Executive and Legislative branches of state government attempt to dictate — in prescriptive terms that single out one characteristic — legal standards for the Judicial branch to apply,” he wrote in his veto message.

Existing law, as Newsom notes, already requires judges to consider “a child's health, safety and welfare” which is a broad enough set of considerations to encompass any relevant set of issues arising from a child's gender identity.

It's rare, though, that Newsom, who built his national political profile for his stance on LGBTQ issues as mayor of San Francisco, would stand up to a bill pushed by LGBTQ activist groups.

A second bill Newsom vetoed was long telegraphed. Weeks ago, Newsom expressed skepticism of Assembly Bill 316, introduced by Asm. Cecilia AguiarCurry, D-Davis, which would mandate the presence of a driver in self-driving trucks.

This bill would slam the brakes on innovation and technological progress in a state with every opportunity to be the global center of innovation and technological progress.

Newsom noted in his veto message that “existing law provides sufficient authority to create the appropriate regulatory framework,” and that “this bill is not needed at this time.”

The bill will, of course, never be needed. Autonomous vehicles will no doubt be a part of our future, opening up new opportunities for improving supply chains and improving safety on our roads.

And thirdly, Newsom vetoed Assembly Bill 1306, introduced by Asm. Wendy Carrillo, D-Los Angeles, which, among other things, seeks to prohibit state prison officials from notifying federal immigration officials about the pending release of certain non-citizen prisoners. This includes people being released from prison for crimes they committed under the age of 26 through the state's youth offender parole program or those being released through elderly parole.

Carrillo argued the bill was necessary to stop “the indefinite incarceration of justiceimpacted individuals when transferred to immigration detention centers to serve an additional sentence that is never handed down by a criminal court or a judge.”

Newsom's veto counters, “current law strikes the right balance on limiting interaction to support community trust and cooperation between law enforcement and local communities.”

Here, the line being drawn by Newsom isn't an unreasonable one. We're not talking about an ordinary undocumented person being unjustly picked up by state authorities; we're talking about people who committed crimes serious enough to end up in state prison.

With this trio of vetoes, Newsom is trying to signal that he won't necessarily go along with everything the progressive Legislature wants, which is as close a win as anyone not on the far left can expect from California these days. But, we'll take it. Newsom should make a point of checking the absurd impulses of the Legislature more often, as doing so will on net be a political win for him and a policy win for California.