Governor Newsom recently signed AB 2096 into law with the goal of providing California public higher education institutions another tool to protect students from potential violence on campus.

Previously, the law gave private institutions the right to seek restraining orders in response to conduct by individuals that occurs off campus and amounts to a “credible threat of violence.”   

The new law amends Code of Civil Procedure section 527.85 to expand this right to public colleges and universities.  It also permits colleges and universities to obtain restraining orders in response to acts of “unlawful violence,” defined as “any assault or battery, or stalking as prohibited in Section 646.9 of the Penal Code," excluding acts of self defense. The conduct no longer has to occur off campus.