Rob Bonta
California Attorney General leading the 12-state suit against the Paramount-WBD merger.
Rob Bonta's twelve-state lawsuit has the $110bn Paramount Skydance takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery on hold: a federal judge granted his Coalition a temporary restraining order on 20 July 2026, a month after Washington cleared the deal.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026 · Appears in 3 active topics
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2026 FIFA World CupBackground
Bonta is the Attorney General of California, the state's chief law officer. Governor Gavin Newsom appointed him in April 2021, making him the first Filipino American in the post, and he has since won the office at the ballot box. Before that he served in the state Assembly.
His office has used state law to act where federal regulators have not, most prominently in the 2026 suit against the Paramount-WBD merger. It has also been a target for others seeking action: in May 2026 the hospitality union at SoFi Stadium asked for a state data-privacy investigation into FIFA's accreditation process.
He also has a role in the fight over California's 2025 redistricting vote. After the Riverside County sheriff took roughly 650,000 Proposition 50 ballots into police custody, Bonta told Chad Bianco to pause his inquiry; on 24 September California's Supreme Court held that Bonta had acted lawfully.
Bonta stalled the Paramount deal in court
Bonta led twelve Democratic-led states into federal court on 13 July to block Paramount Skydance's takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, arguing it would mean higher prices and less content. The Justice Department had already cleared the merger in June, but states can sue on their own antitrust authority.
The gamble paid off within a week. On 20 July Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín granted a temporary restraining order, finding enough evidence on theatrical market share to presume an antitrust violation, and barred the deal from closing. For Bonta it established state attorneys general as a check on media consolidation that federal approval does not settle.
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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 1 October 2026. Editorial standards.