California is toughening its DUI laws after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed four bills aimed at increasing penalties for impaired drivers and repeat offenders.
The package, signed Friday, includes a new law named after 18-year-old Braun Levi, who was killed in May 2025 by a suspected repeat drunk driver while walking in Manhattan Beach in Southern California.
Levi's family had recently relocated to the area after their Pacific Palisades home was destroyed in the 2025 Palisades Fire.
His mother, Jennifer Levi, has since pushed for changes to California's DUI laws, saying she believes her son's death could have been prevented.
"I couldn't believe it. You think something like this will never happen to you," Levi said.
She said that after speaking with lawmakers, prosecutors and attorneys, she learned about what she described as gaps in California's DUI laws.
"Prosecutors did not have the tools they needed to prosecute efficiently and fairly, so I decided to do something about it," she said.
Senate Bill 907, known as Braun's Law, was authored by Sen. Bob Archuleta (D-Pico Rivera) and signed by Newsom on Friday.
The law addresses cases in which DUI charges are reduced to lesser offenses. It requires courts to notify defendants who plead to a lesser charge that if they commit another impaired-driving offense and someone dies, they could face more serious criminal charges, including murder.
Levi worked with Archuleta on the legislation.
For Archuleta, the issue is also personal. He said his granddaughter, Samantha, was killed by a repeat drunk driver on Christmas Eve two years ago.
"These are preventable tragedies," Archuleta said. "Nothing will ever bring my Samantha back or bring Braun back to the Levi family."
Newsom also visited the Levi family home when he signed the legislation.
Three other DUI laws
The governor also signed three additional measures targeting repeat DUI offenses.
Assembly Bill 1546 strengthens criminal penalties for repeat DUI offenders. AB 1685 increases DMV violation points from two to three for convictions of vehicular manslaughter and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. AB 1687 extends the length of driver's license revocations for certain repeat offenders.
Together, the four measures also include longer license revocation periods and ignition-interlock requirements for certain repeat offenders. The governor's office said the changes can extend a license revocation to as long as six years for someone with four or more qualifying convictions within a 10-year period.
Archuleta said the legislation received bipartisan support.
"It melts us together. This is not a Republican thing or a Democrat thing. This is an American thing, a California thing," he said.
'I'm not done'
Levi said the new laws represent an important first step, but she wants to see additional changes to California's DUI laws.
"We just needed baby steps, to get our foot in the door. And I'm not done," she said. "There's still more work to be done. California still has a lot of room for improvement."
The governor's office said the California Highway Patrol has made more than 50,900 DUI arrests so far this year, along with conducting sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols statewide.
For Levi, the legislation is about preventing other families from experiencing the loss her family has endured.
"I am really proud we got this one across the finish line and the governor signed it," she said.
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