---
type: "Bill"
title: "Domestic violence."
description: "Under existing law, a battery committed against a spouse, a person with whom the defendant is cohabitating, a person who is the parent of the defendant's child, a former spouse, a fiancé or fiancée, or a person with whom the defendant currently has, or has previously had, a dating or engagement relationship, is punishable by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not more than one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. If probation is granted, existing law requires the defendant to complete a batterer's treatment program. If probation is granted in the case of a person who has previously been convicted of a violation of these provisions, existing law requires that the person be imprisoned for not less than 48 hours."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 545"
citation: "California AB 545 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Domestic violence."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Melendez"]
version_count: 7
action_count: 25
vote_count: 8
first_action: "2015-02-23"
last_action: "2015-10-08"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/37355688-ef23-4472-a787-dbce95753655"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545"
source_hash: "4e755a60de93104c096a212f30dd3e7f8475906cf57953699e52768209ccd7fd"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ca"]
---

# California AB 545 (20152016) — Domestic violence.

Under existing law, a battery committed against a spouse, a person with whom the defendant is cohabitating, a person who is the parent of the defendant's child, a former spouse, a fiancé or fiancée, or a person with whom the defendant currently has, or has previously had, a dating or engagement relationship, is punishable by a fine not exceeding $2,000, or by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not more than one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment. If probation is granted, existing law requires the defendant to complete a batterer's treatment program. If probation is granted in the case of a person who has previously been convicted of a violation of these provisions, existing law requires that the person be imprisoned for not less than 48 hours.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **02/23/15 - Introduced** (filed) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545&version=20150AB54599INT)
2. **03/19/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545&version=20150AB54598AMD)
3. **04/23/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545&version=20150AB54597AMD)
4. **09/04/15 - Amended Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545&version=20150AB54596AMD)
5. **10/08/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545&version=20150AB54594CHP)
6. **AB545** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545)
7. **09/14/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB545&version=20150AB54595ENR)

## Votes

- Do pass. — **17–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 545 MELENDEZ Concurrence in Senate Amendments — **80–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass as amended and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **6–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Placed on suspense file — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- AB 545 MELENDEZ Assembly Third Reading — **80–0** (pass) · lower
- 3rd Reading AB545 Melendez By Leyva — **39–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Melendez — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2015-02-23** Read first time. To print. `reading-1`
- **2015-02-24** From printer. May be heard in committee March 26.
- **2015-03-19** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-19** From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to Com. on PUB. S. Read second time and amended. `reading-2, amendment-introduction, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-03-23** Re-referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-22** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 6. Noes 0.) (April 14). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-04-23** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-27** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2015-05-06** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (May 6). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-05-07** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-01** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 1671.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-01** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-06-11** Referred to Com. on PUB. S. `referral-committee`
- **2015-07-15** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (July 14). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-08-17** In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. `referral-committee`
- **2015-08-27** From committee: Do pass. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (August 27). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-08-31** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-04** Read third time and amended. Ordered to second reading. `reading-3, amendment-passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-08** Read second time. Ordered to third reading. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-09-09** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 39. Noes 0. Page 2638.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-09-09** In Assembly. Concurrence in Senate amendments pending.
- **2015-09-10** Senate amendments concurred in. To Engrossing and Enrolling. (Ayes 80. Noes 0. Page 3058.). `committee-passage-favorable, amendment-passage`
- **2015-09-18** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 4 p.m.
- **2015-10-08** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-10-08** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 626, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/37355688-ef23-4472-a787-dbce95753655`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).