Politicians are not generally celebrated for consistent adherence to principles. But few politicians are as shameless as California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is often happy to shed past stances in his pursuit of higher office. Newsom’s recent effort to whitewash and wave away his truly abysmal record on civil liberties during the COVID years should not go unnoticed.
On September 15, CNN aired Jake Tapper’s interview with Newsom, which the pair filmed while fly fishing together in Montana. Newsom admitted that California’s decision to close beaches was “insane, in hindsight” and that his much-maligned decision to dine at the exclusive dining destination the French Laundry was “boneheaded.” Newsom’s interview gives the impression that California’s (indeed, his own) COVID-era restrictions were laughable excesses that can only be criticized with the benefit of hindsight. In reality, Newsom made the deliberate decision to trample civil liberties without a clear public health justification.
Newsom’s disregard for basic human freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution is perhaps best exemplified by his policies on religious gatherings. In May 2020, the Supreme Court initially let his 25%-capacity cap on churches stand, with Chief Justice Roberts reasoning that it merely mirrored limits on comparable secular gatherings. But as Newsom’s restrictions dragged on, the court’s scrutiny intensified. In February 2021, in a second South Bay United Pentecostal Church v. Newsom ruling, the justices enjoined California’s outright ban on indoor worship in the state’s most restrictive tier while refusing to block the 25% capacity cap or the state’s prohibition on singing and chanting.
Two months later came Tandon v. Newsom, where the court went further, blocking Newsom’s rule limiting even private Bible studies and prayer meetings in people’s homes to three households — while hair salons and retail stores operated under far more permissive rules. Newsom could have collaborated with religious leaders to issue reasonable public health guidance that safeguarded key religious freedoms — instead, he fought churches tooth and nail in order to subject them to far more stringent restrictions than their secular counterparts.
In the educational context, Newsom put children last through his willingness to keep schools closed. In 2020, Newsom’s health department created color-coded county tiers that effectively barred most public schools from reopening in person. When teachers’ unions lobbied to keep classrooms shut even as mounting evidence showed they were low-risk, Newsom bowed to pressure from this key interest group. He waited until March 2021, only after a lawsuit was filed and nearly every other state had already reopened, to call for schools to resume limited in-person instruction.
Meanwhile, his administration enforced a rigid six-foot distancing rule that had little scientific backing but made reopening logistically impossible for many districts. California thus ranked last among the fifty states for in-person instruction during the 2020-2021 school year; by June 2021, most of the state’s largest districts — Los Angeles, San Francisco, Sacramento — still had fewer than one in ten schools offering in-person classes as their primary mode.
While public school children languished in virtual classrooms, Newsom’s own children attended in-person private school. Test scores reflected the failure of Newsom’s policies. Los Angeles Unified reported that roughly 72% of students failed to meet state math standards and 58% fell short in English. As tone-deaf as the French Laundry dinner was, it was nothing compared to the massive harm caused by prolonged school closures.
Newsom’s beach closures weren’t as constitutionally offensive as his policies on religious gatherings or as damaging as his school closures, but they nonetheless underscore the absurdity of his COVID-era policies.
In April 2020, after crowds gathered on the coast during a heat wave, Newsom ordered a “hard closure” of every beach and state park in Orange County. Huntington Beach and Dana Point sued, arguing the state had trampled their constitutional authority over their own shorelines; Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel noted the county already had among the lowest per-capita COVID death rates in the state, making the closure political theater rather than public health policy.
A judge declined to block the order, and Orange County’s beaches sat empty while the state litigated its own overreach. Newsom eventually relented, permitting “active recreation” while still banning sunbathing and beach gatherings outright. He now calls this insane, which was obvious to many at the time.
The same governor who now shrugs off his COVID-era record as an easy target for hindsight is positioning himself for a national campaign, asking voters to trust his judgment on a far bigger stage. Newsom had the chance to lead California through a genuine crisis with a light touch and constitutional fidelity. He chose control instead, and only now, safely past the consequences, does he call it what it was.
Voters weighing his next act should remember that it took him half a decade to say so.
Jesse D. Franklin-Murdock is the Miles Visiting Fellow at the Center for American Liberty. He is also a partner at Sweigart Murdock, LLP, in San Francisco, where his litigation practice focuses on First Amendment and defamation law, civil rights, and political law