SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 25, 2026, signed Braun’s Law and a broader package of bills aimed at cracking down on repeat drunken driving, after the 2025 death of Braun Levi, an 18-year-old Loyola High School tennis player from Pacific Palisades who was struck while walking in Manhattan Beach.
Senate Bill 907, carried by Sen. Bob Archuleta, is named for Levi. His family had relocated to Manhattan Beach after the 2025 Palisades Fire destroyed their home. In May 2025, he was killed by a suspected repeat drunk driver. Braun’s Law is designed so drivers whose DUI charges are pled down are still warned that impaired driving is extremely dangerous to human life, and that a repeat act could bring more serious charges, including murder.
The signing package also includes Assembly Bill 1546 by Assemblymember Nick Schultz on DUI enforcement, Assembly Bill 1685 on DMV points, and Assembly Bill 1687 on license revocation. Together, the bills strengthen penalties for repeat DUI, lengthen license revocation periods, expand ignition interlock requirements, raise DMV points from 2 to 3 for vehicular manslaughter and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and allow the DMV to revoke a license for up to six years when a driver has four or more qualifying convictions in a 10-year window.
The enforcement backdrop California is citing
The Governor’s Office tied the bills to current California Highway Patrol numbers. Year to date, CHP reported more than 50,900 DUI arrests, 75 checkpoints, and 154 saturation patrols. In July 2026, CHP also awarded more than $41 million in cannabis-tax grants to 183 organizations working on impaired-driving prevention and related programs.
Those figures do not replace the family story at the center of Braun’s Law. They do show why Sacramento is treating repeat impaired driving as both a courtroom problem and a traffic-safety systems problem: warnings after plea deals, harder license consequences, and more points on the DMV side when a crash turns fatal.
Why this matters
A teenager walking in a beach city after his family fled a wildfire is not a policy abstraction. Braun’s Law pairs a named victim, a clear warning rule after plea bargains, and a measurable DMV crackdown that other states can compare against their own DUI codes.
Road and mobility fights Never Late News covers elsewhere show how local governments already treat traffic systems as life-and-death policy. The Charlotte I-77 toll lanes approval after a city council flip is about who controls a corridor and who pays. Miami-Dade’s budget fight over bus cuts and Metromover fares is about whether transit stays usable. Even budget nights like Huntsville’s $360M 2027 city budget and land-use pauses such as Santa Monica’s SB 79 Pico upzone pause remind readers that California communities are constantly renegotiating safety, housing, and street-level risk after disaster and growth.
For California drivers with prior DUI history, the practical change is the warning language after a plea-down and the longer shadow of license revocation and ignition interlock. For victims’ families, the question is whether courts and the DMV will treat a second impaired-driving act as the serious escalation Braun’s Law describes.
How Never Late News reported this
Never Late News based this report on the California Governor’s Office release dated Sept. 25, 2026, on Newsom signing Braun’s Law and a package of bills to crack down on DUI offenders. Key facts include SB 907 by Sen. Bob Archuleta; Braun Levi’s age, school, tennis background, Pacific Palisades roots, relocation to Manhattan Beach after the 2025 Palisades Fire, and May 2025 fatal crash; the warning requirement when DUI charges are pled down; companion bills AB 1546 (Schultz), AB 1685 (points), and AB 1687 (license revocation); stronger repeat-DUI penalties; longer revocation and ignition interlock; DMV points rising from 2 to 3 for vehicular manslaughter and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated; DMV authority to revoke up to six years after four or more qualifying convictions in 10 years; and CHP year-to-date figures of more than 50,900 DUI arrests, 75 checkpoints, 154 saturation patrols, plus more than $41 million in July 2026 cannabis-tax grants to 183 organizations. Primary source: Governor’s Office on Braun’s Law and DUI package. We did not invent charging documents or trial outcomes beyond that release.
Corrections and reader feedback
If you spot an error in bill numbers, victim details, DMV point changes, or CHP statistics, email editor@neverlatenews.com with the correction and a source link. Never Late News corrects factual mistakes promptly and notes substantive updates when implementing regulations are issued.
About Never Late News: Never Late News is a US local and civic news site covering budgets, taxes, schools, housing, and public services with people-first reporting. Articles carry the byline Mike Joe. We prioritize timely, sourced civic coverage over clickbait.