The Tenth

Amendment
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Congress writes roughly 300 laws a year. State legislatures write 25,000. The Tenth is a weekly briefing on the bills passing in America's 50 statehouses — what they do, who they affect, and what actually changes for the people who live under them. Non-partisan, bill-first, plain English. Named for the 10th Amendment. From amendment.app.

  1. 3d ago

    Two Hours a Day: California Writes the Default for a Child's Chatbot

    If a California child opens a companion chatbot now, the product starts with persistent memory off, push notifications off, one hour per sitting and two hours a day. Those are the defaults Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law on September 10 as SB1119 — known in the statute itself as Adam's Law, for Adam Raine, whose parents sued OpenAI after his death. It was one of thirteen child online safety bills signed in a single ceremony, landing in the code as Chapters 180 through 192, consecutive, with no gaps. Congress, meanwhile, met for about three minutes all week. In the same seven days, the Supreme Court stayed a federal district judge's order on its emergency docket and left Missouri voting in November under the congressional map drawn in 2022, a week after Missouri's own Supreme Court held that a veto referendum on redistricting was constitutional. Michigan's Senate discharged a debt-collection bill from committee and passed it the same afternoon, 21-14 (SB1137) — raising the state's homestead exemption from $3,500 to $125,000 and capping wage garnishment at the lesser of 15% or the amount above 35 times the minimum wage. New York banned falsely impersonating a union or a union representative, 138-0 in the Assembly and 60-0 in the Senate (A10835). Delaware barred reverse-keyword court orders — the kind that name a search term and ask who typed it — except in a 26-crime felony list, and only when the query returns five or fewer hits. And in the separate fight over the Postal Service's mail ballot rule, the First Circuit denied the administration a stay; the Supreme Court has not ruled on its application. Seventy-two percent of teenagers have used an AI companion chatbot — a Common Sense Media figure from July 2025, for thirteen- to seventeen-year-olds. It was read aloud on a chamber floor on California's last night to pass bills, and ten days later it had a chapter number attached to it: Chapter 190. Follow every bill at amendment.app. Floor audio: Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D) and Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), California State Assembly, August 31, 2026. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: California age verification signals in operating systems (AB1856)California platform age restriction and e-Safety Advisory Commission (AB1709)California companion chatbots and children's safety, "Adam's Law" (SB1119)Michigan garnishment exemptions and homestead exemption (SB1137)New York ban on impersonating a union representative (A10835)Delaware reverse-keyword warrant ban (HB145)Delaware criminal fines and fees waiver (HB133)Delaware reentry housing discharge plans, the Grace Peterson Act (SB292)California moratorium on companion chatbots in children's toys (SB867)California AI mass-layoff disclosure (SB951)

  2. Sep 6

    112-0, Then $350 Million: The Bill That Replaced Itself

    In March 2025 the South Carolina House passed the Public Expression Protection Act 112-0 — an anti-SLAPP bill that would have let people sued for speaking at a county council meeting get the case thrown out early. Seventeen months later the same bill number came back from the Senate with the free-speech text gone and roughly $350 million in local projects in its place. Governor Henry McMaster signed it Tuesday, September 1 as Act 261. South Carolina still has no anti-SLAPP law. In the same seven days, California sent Governor Newsom a four-year moratorium on AI companion chatbots built into toys for children under 16 (SB867), passing 74-1 in the Assembly and 40-0 in the Senate — one no vote across both chambers — and banned speculative ticket listings with a remedy of double the ticket price plus nonrefundable travel and attorney's fees (AB1349, 67-0 on concurrence). Delaware's governor signed on two consecutive days: HB380 struck the single word "solely" from its privacy law, so a company can no longer defeat your opt-out by having a human rubber-stamp an automated profiling decision; SB300 created a state license for gun dealers moving more than 10 firearms a year, phasing in through January 2029. Texas's right-to-repair law took effect September 1, requiring manufacturers to sell parts, tools and manuals to independent shops. And in Washington, the House voted 212-206 for a constitutional amendment fixing the Supreme Court at nine justices — and it failed, because amendments need two-thirds, not a majority. House Bill 3305 passed the South Carolina House 112-0 as a free-speech bill and was signed into law as a $350 million appropriations act. Both sentences are true about the same four digits. Follow every bill at amendment.app. Floor audio: Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal (D), California State Assembly, August 31; Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), U.S. House floor, September 2, via C-SPAN. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: South Carolina supplemental appropriations, formerly the Public Expression Protection Act (H3305)California AI companion chatbots in children's toys (SB867)Delaware automated-decision opt-out (HB380)Delaware gun dealer licensing (SB300)Texas right to repair (HB2963)California speculative ticket listings (AB1349)Constitutional amendment to fix the Supreme Court at nine justices (HJR1)

  3. Aug 30

    Bentley and Mason's Law: A Grandmother Took It to the Statehouse

    On April 13, 2021, in Byrnes Mill, Missouri, a drunk driver killed Lacey Newton, Cordell Williams, and their four-month-old son. Two of their children survived — Bentley, now nine, and Mason, now seven. Their grandmother, Cecilia Williams of Bonne Terre, is raising them, and she spent five years pushing for the law named for them. Bentley and Mason's Law took effect Friday, August 28: a Missouri court can now order someone convicted of an intoxication-related offense that killed a parent to pay child support to the children that parent left behind. It passed the Senate 29-0 and the House 127-2, and Gov. Mike Kehoe signed it in July. The same child maintenance provision also rides on HB1740, a separate DWI bill that took effect the same day. In the same seven days, California's legislature ran out its clock before Monday's adjournment. AB817 — written after a Boyle Heights cold storage fire spoiled 85 million pounds of food and left the neighborhood in flies and stench for weeks — cleared three committees in four days. AB502 rewrote California's deceptive-campaign-ad law after a federal court struck the 2024 version, narrowing the protected window from 120 days before an election to 30 (Senate, 30-9). AB1811 froze the 2025 federal health-professional-shortage designations into state law through 2035, and AB2700 ordered the state's utility regulator to tally what wildfire victims from the Butte, North Bay, Thomas and Camp fires are still owed — both without a single no vote. Congress stayed in recess; the House Rules Committee returns Monday with HR1501 and HR9436 on its agenda. Bentley is nine. Mason is seven. Since Friday, a court can put a number on what they lost. Follow every bill at amendment.app. Floor audio: Sen. Catherine Blakespear and the California Senate floor and Senate Local Government Committee, via vod.senate.ca.gov. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: Missouri — Bentley and Mason's Law (SB1135)Missouri — DWI felony classifications, ignition interlock, and Bentley and Mason’s Law (HB1740)California — cold storage facility neighbor fund (AB817)California — deceptive media in campaign ads (AB502)California — health professional shortage area designations (AB1811)California — wildfire victim restitution accounting (AB2700)Federal — Protecting Domestic Mining Act (HR1501)Federal — Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act (HR9436)

  4. Aug 23

    Two Vetoes and Nobody in the Building

    Most legislatures have gone home. This week the law moved in exactly two places — a governor's desk in Raleigh and a Senate floor in Sacramento racing an August 31 adjournment. On Monday, August 17, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein vetoed two bills on the same day: House Bill 377, which would let the state's chief justice suspend a trial judge without pay during a misconduct investigation, and House Bill 958, which would cut early voting in primaries from 17 days to 10 and allow ballots to be challenged for three days after Election Day. Republicans have said they will try to override both. They can't: the General Assembly's next voting session begins November 16 — thirteen days after the November 3 election. In California, the last full week of session produced the opposite picture. Assembly Bill 2624 adds immigration support services providers to Safe at Home, the address-confidentiality program the state has run for nearly thirty years for stalking and domestic-violence survivors and reproductive health care workers; it passed the Senate 30-10 and cleared the Assembly on concurrence 59-19, over a First Amendment objection we play in full. Assembly Bill 2618 bars a departing utilities commissioner from taking a job with a regulated utility for two years — closing a revolving door that already ran one way — 38-0. And Assembly Bill 1696 lets certified nurse-midwives practice without physician supervision in labor and delivery, obstetric triage, and emergency obstetric evaluation units, 38-0 and 74-1. In Washington, nothing: Congress is in August recess, and the week's only federal action was bills going into the hopper, including Rep. Hillary Scholten's HR 10134. It comes back to a desk, and the person sitting across from someone holding a deportation notice. The first application under California's expanded program can be filed April 1, 2027. Follow every bill at amendment.app. Floor audio: Sen. Lena Gonzalez (D), Sen. Tony Strickland (R), Sen. Jerry McNerney (D), and Sen. Anna Caballero (D), California State Senate floor sessions of August 18 and 19, 2026, via the California State Senate video archive. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: California address confidentiality for immigration support providers (AB2624)North Carolina judicial suspension and discipline, vetoed (HB377)North Carolina election law changes, vetoed (HB958)California utilities commissioner revolving-door ban (AB2618)California nurse-midwives in emergency obstetric care (AB1696)Local Health Care Protection Act (HR10134)

  5. Aug 16

    The Yes That Expires: A Week Run by Deadlines, Not Votes

    You were approved. Sometime in the spring a doctor said you needed a course of treatment, your insurer reviewed it, and the answer came back yes. Then, partway through — same condition, same prescription, same doctor — an envelope arrives saying it has to be reviewed again. Congress was in August recess and most legislatures went home months ago, so this was a week when deadlines and calendar dates moved as much law as votes did. On Thursday, August 13, California's fiscal committees cleared their suspense files against a next-day deadline, and two health-adjacent bills went opposite ways: SB951, which would require employers to report jobs they permanently stop hiring for because of technology — down to the vendor that sold the system — advanced 10-3, while AB2651, the Informed Parents, Healthy Schools Act, did not advance and no roll call was recorded on the action that ended it. AB539 came off suspense 5-0, fifteen months after the Assembly passed it 64-2. In Colorado nobody voted at all: ninety days after sine die, every 2026 bill without a safety clause took effect at 12:01 a.m. on August 12, including SB011 (a staffed hotline for law enforcement, warrants acknowledged within 8 hours and answered within 72) and SB032 (pharmacists may now prescribe vaccines on their own). California's Senate passed SCA5 27-9 — exactly the two-thirds required — to address a per-pupil gap of $29,876 in Palo Alto Unified against $16,504 in Milpitas Unified, fifteen minutes apart in the same county. Plus a federal data-center electricity excise tax (HR10102), and Governor Healey's August 10 signature on Massachusetts H5595. Back to that envelope: somebody in the middle of a course of treatment, already approved, opening a letter that asks the same question a second time. Nothing about them changed — only the calendar did. Follow every bill at amendment.app. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: California technological-displacement notice (SB951)California Informed Parents, Healthy Schools Act (AB2651)California prior-authorization duration (AB539)Colorado search warrants to online platforms (SB011)Colorado Promoting Immunization Access (SB032)California Education Equalization Act (SCA5)Data Center Community Reinvestment Act (HR10102)Massachusetts Prioritizing Patient Access to Care (H5595)

  6. Aug 9

    612,000 Voters and 415 Bills: Two Ways a Statehouse Decides

    On Tuesday, Kansas voters rejected a constitutional amendment that would have abolished the state's judicial nominating commission and elected Supreme Court justices directly — 375,347 to 236,764, about 61 percent to 39, out of 612,111 ballots. The measure had reached the ballot by clearing both chambers of the Kansas legislature at exactly the two-thirds minimum and not one vote more. The day before, in Sacramento, the California Senate Appropriations Committee heard 563 measures and placed 415 of them on the suspense file, each on a 7-0 vote — the mechanism that lets a bill die without a single recorded vote against it. In the same seven days, three governors signed. Illinois became the fourth state, and the first in the Midwest, to bar employers from requiring a driver's license for jobs that don't involve driving (HB4758, House 82-30, Senate 41-15, effective January 1, 2027) — a bill that came out of the Chicago disability-rights organization Access Living, and that reaches hiring, promotion, training, and discipline, not just the posting. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey signed the PROTECT Act (H5620, House enacted 135-21), barring warrantless immigration arrests at courthouses, schools, child care centers, and health care facilities, blocking new 287(g) agreements, and letting people sue in state court. New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed S10113 (Senate 47-13, Assembly 88-53), which lets a cannabis microbusiness count as all three of the licensees a showcase event permit requires. And in Washington, the Senate Agriculture Committee's farm bill failed to advance on a 10-11 vote over a SNAP cost share shifted to states; the Save Our Bacon Act (HR4673), which would make California's Proposition 12 unenforceable against out-of-state pork, was left out of the Senate base text and never came up. We close where we opened: on a job posting for work you do at a desk, with a headset, without ever leaving the building — and the third line down asking for a driver's license. Starting January 1 in Illinois, that line comes off. The application goes through. Follow every bill at amendment.app. Floor audio: Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), Senate Agriculture Committee markup, August 6, 2026, via C-SPAN. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: Illinois driver's license job-posting ban (HB4758)Kansas Supreme Court elections amendment (SCR1611)California abortion and gender-affirming care records shield (AB1930)California protective orders: firearm and ammunition surrender (AB1753)Massachusetts PROTECT Act (H5620)New York cannabis microbusiness showcase permits (S10113)Save Our Bacon Act (HR4673)

  7. Aug 2

    Four Laws in Seven Days — and the Machine That Only Takes Money In

    A man in his seventies stands at a machine in a gas station just off a state highway, feeding it hundred-dollar bills while a voice on the phone calls itself a fraud investigator. Machines like that one were used in scams that took more than $389 million from Americans last year — and where investigators knew the victim's age, people 60 and older accounted for 86% of the money lost. As of August 1, those machines are illegal in Minnesota. This week was less about bills being introduced than about laws switching on — four of them, in four states, inside seven days. Massachusetts got House Bill 5595 through the Senate on July 31, the last day of formal sessions, striking the list of circumstances that currently governs abortion at 24 weeks or later and leaving the decision to the physician's professional judgment; the House passed it 119-33 and it now sits unsigned with Gov. Maura Healey. Minnesota's Senate File 3868 bans virtual currency kiosks outright — after the state became the first in the country to try regulating them in 2024, and scammers routed around every rule. Maine's LD 2176 took effect July 29, barring landlords from handing over a tenant's personal information, immigration status included, to force them out; it survived the House 76-73. Louisiana's Senate Bill 93 took effect August 1 with minimum bail floors for child sexual abuse material offenses — 38-0, 96-0, and 34-0, not a single no. And the Senate HELP Committee reported ten bills in one Thursday morning, including S. 5046 (Kaine, Collins, Murkowski) to stop the Education Department from moving four of its offices to other agencies, and the RISE Act. Two laws took effect 72 hours apart — one by three votes, one without a single member against. Both are equally in force. Follow every bill at amendment.app. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: Massachusetts post-24-week abortion standard (H5595)Minnesota crypto kiosk ban (SF3868)Maine tenant information protections (LD2176)Louisiana minimum bail floors (SB93)Education Department office transfer ban (S5046)RISE Act, college disability documentation (S3589)21st Century Dyslexia Act (S3010)Emergency Savings Enhancement Act (S3333)

  8. Jul 26

    Two War Powers Votes in One Day — and the Tow Truck Nobody Called

    On Thursday, July 23, the House voted 214-208 to pull American forces out of hostilities with Iran — four Republicans crossing over. The same day, the Senate voted 47-49 against its own version. Both chambers were answering the same question, and the split had less to do with the answer than with the paperwork: the House passed a concurrent resolution, which never reaches the President and carries no force of law, while the Senate measure that would have had force of law never got out of the Foreign Relations Committee. Almost everything else that moved this week was about the same thing — the distance between a rule and a rule somebody can enforce. Pennsylvania made predatory towing a crime (SB779, signed July 20, House 193-9): no more unsolicited tows, no holding a car past 24 hours, no cash-only demands, and on a third violation police can impound the tow truck itself. Michigan barred investment funds that own 100-plus properties and are worth at least $375 million from buying more single-family homes (HB6074, signed July 21, House 105-1) — written entirely by Republicans, signed by a Democratic governor, with a loophole the sponsor concedes. Delaware restored state protection to roughly 75,000 acres of wetlands the Supreme Court stripped from federal coverage in 2023, and built a parcel lookup tool so the no-net-loss standard can actually be checked before you buy (SB9, signed July 21, Senate 20-0). New Jersey's e-bike law finally bit on July 19, making it the first state to treat an everyday e-bike more like a motor vehicle than a bicycle (S4834). And a bipartisan screwworm bill got a subcommittee markup in Washington (HR7466). It ends where it started: a person on the shoulder of the road, a tow truck pulling away, a booster seat locked in a car they own. None of that was new this week. What was new is that somebody finally attached a consequence to it. For the full text, status, and plain-English breakdown of any bill we mentioned, head to amendment.app. The Tenth is produced with AI-generated hosts working from human-edited, fact-checked briefings; every bill, vote, and quote is real and sourced. Any floor audio is the genuine recording of the named official. Bills in this episode: Iran war powers resolution, House (H.Con.Res.89)Iran war powers resolution, Senate (S.J.Res.180)Pennsylvania predatory towing crime (SB779)Michigan institutional investor home-buying ban (HB6074)Delaware freshwater wetlands protection (SB9)New Jersey e-bike licensing and registration (S4834)SAFE CATTLE Act, New World screwworm (HR7466)

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Congress writes roughly 300 laws a year. State legislatures write 25,000. The Tenth is a weekly briefing on the bills passing in America's 50 statehouses — what they do, who they affect, and what actually changes for the people who live under them. Non-partisan, bill-first, plain English. Named for the 10th Amendment. From amendment.app.

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  • Creator
    Amendment
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    The Tenth