California Gov. Gavin Newsom just signed four new DUI laws that expand the state's power to monitor your driving, lock you out of your own vehicle, and yank your license for years — all sold under the banner of public safety.
The laws escalate felony penalties, extend mandatory ignition interlock periods, increase DMV violation points, and give the state longer authority to revoke licenses. The practical effect: more government hardware in your car and more bureaucrats controlling whether you can drive at all.
Braun's Law, or Senate Bill 907, is named after Braun Levi, an 18-year-old Loyola High School tennis player killed by a suspected repeat drunk driver in Manhattan Beach in May 2025. The law escalates felony penalties for suspects who flee a DUI crash causing death or serious injury if they had a prior driving incident within ten years. It also requires courts to warn anyone whose DUI charges get reduced that a repeat offense could bring a murder charge. The bill's author, Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Pico Rivera, lost his own granddaughter Samantha to a repeat drunk driver. "No family should have to endure what mine has, or what has happened to the Levi family," Archuleta said.
Jennifer Levi, Braun's mother, pushed for the legislation. "It was tragic, traumatic, and sudden, and it didn't have to happen," she told KABC-TV.
Assembly Bill 1546 ramps up penalties for repeat DUI offenders within a ten-year window, making it easier to charge cases as felonies. Someone with four prior violations now faces a straight jail-eligible felony carrying 16 months to three years and loses their license for five years — up from four. They also get hit with a mandatory four-year ignition interlock period, up from three. Those interlock devices prevent your engine from starting if your breath alcohol exceeds a set limit — a surveillance device bolted into your personal vehicle by government mandate.
Assembly Bill 1685 bumps DMV violation points for vehicular manslaughter and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated from two to three. Assembly Bill 1687 extends the period the DMV can revoke a license for someone convicted of more than three DUIs — starting in 2031, that's a six-year suspension.
Newsom framed it all as moral necessity. "Getting behind the wheel when you are impaired is inexcusable — especially when it results in the loss of someone's life," he said in a statement. "We will not stand by as more lives are lost."
Not everyone bought it. The New York Post reported that social justice groups argued harsher punishments disproportionately hit lower-income people and that existing penalties — up to four years in state prison for a felony hit-and-run — are already sufficient. Smart Justice California testified that "to the extent existing penalties already act as a deterrent, expanding penalties will not increase their deterrent value." KABC-TV buried the opposition entirely, framing the package as unalloyed victory for victims.
The accused driver in Levi's death, Jenia Belt, was reportedly driving on a suspended license from a prior DUI arrest when she struck him. The laws already on the books didn't stop her. No amount of new interlock mandates or point escalations stops someone willing to drive on a suspended license — but they do give Sacramento more levers to pull over every other driver in the state.
The question nobody in the press is asking: if California can't enforce the laws it already has against repeat offenders who drive on suspended licenses, what exactly do four new ones accomplish — besides expanding the state's grip on your ignition and your record?
