republic-os/legislation/us/states/ca/20152016/ab-536.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Domestic violence: protective orders."
description: "The Domestic Violence Protection Act authorizes a judicial officer to issue a protective order after notice and a hearing for the purpose of preventing acts of domestic violence, abuse, and sexual abuse and ensuring a period of separation of the persons involved in the domestic violence. The act defines domestic violence as abuse perpetrated against specified persons, and further defines abuse within that context. Existing law authorizes the court to issue a mutual order enjoining the parties from specific acts of abuse if both parties personally appear, each party presents written evidence of abuse or domestic violence, and the court makes detailed findings of fact indicating that both parties acted as a primary aggressor and that neither party acted primarily in self-defense."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ca"
legislature: "California Legislature"
session: "20152016"
identifier: "AB 536"
citation: "California AB 536 (20152016)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Domestic violence: protective orders."]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bloom"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 20
vote_count: 5
first_action: "2015-02-23"
last_action: "2015-07-13"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/c4337c76-2f8f-4cd0-9742-3e0bb15b65f0"
source_url: "http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB536"
source_hash: "4cbe79e54169a6cf32faa61899631196414d4aa1799eb6294a7dd91c5d287f5c"
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 536 (20152016) — Domestic violence: protective orders.

The Domestic Violence Protection Act authorizes a judicial officer to issue a protective order after notice and a hearing for the purpose of preventing acts of domestic violence, abuse, and sexual abuse and ensuring a period of separation of the persons involved in the domestic violence. The act defines domestic violence as abuse perpetrated against specified persons, and further defines abuse within that context. Existing law authorizes the court to issue a mutual order enjoining the parties from specific acts of abuse if both parties personally appear, each party presents written evidence of abuse or domestic violence, and the court makes detailed findings of fact indicating that both parties acted as a primary aggressor and that neither party acted primarily in self-defense.

## 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=201520160AB536&version=20150AB53699INT)
2. **04/08/15 - Amended Assembly** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB536&version=20150AB53698AMD)
3. **07/13/15 - Chaptered** (committee substitute) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB536&version=20150AB53696CHP)
4. **AB536** (committee substitute) — [source](http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB536)
5. **06/29/15 - Enrolled** (enrolled) — [source](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billPdf.xhtml?bill_id=201520160AB536&version=20150AB53697ENR)

## Votes

- Consent Calendar 2nd — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass as amended, and be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **10–0** (pass) · lower
- AB 536 BLOOM Consent Calendar Second Day — **77–0** (pass) · lower
- Do pass, but first be re-referred to the Committee on [Appropriations] with the recommendation: To Consent Calendar — **7–0** (pass) · upper
- Do pass. To Consent Calendar. — **17–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Bloom — 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.
- **2015-03-05** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2015-03-24** In committee: Hearing postponed by committee.
- **2015-04-07** From committee: Amend, and do pass as amended and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 10. Noes 0.) (April 7). `amendment-introduction, committee-passage, amendment-passage`
- **2015-04-08** Read second time and amended. `amendment-passage, reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-09** Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee`
- **2015-04-22** From committee: Do pass. To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 17. Noes 0.) (April 22). `committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-04-23** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-04-30** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Senate. (Ayes 77. Noes 0. Page 1223.) `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-04-30** In Senate. Read first time. To Com. on RLS. for assignment. `reading-1`
- **2015-05-14** Referred to Com. on JUD. `referral-committee`
- **2015-06-10** From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. with recommendation: To Consent Calendar. (Ayes 7. Noes 0.) (June 9). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable, committee-passage`
- **2015-06-22** From committee: Be placed on second reading file pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8 and ordered to consent calendar. `committee-passage`
- **2015-06-23** Read second time. Ordered to Consent Calendar. `reading-2, reading-1`
- **2015-06-25** Read third time. Passed. Ordered to the Assembly. (Ayes 37. Noes 0. Page 1619.). `reading-3, passage, reading-1`
- **2015-06-25** In Assembly. Ordered to Engrossing and Enrolling. `committee-passage`
- **2015-07-01** Enrolled and presented to the Governor at 2:30 p.m.
- **2015-07-13** Approved by the Governor. `executive-signature`
- **2015-07-13** Chaptered by Secretary of State - Chapter 73, Statutes of 2015.

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/c4337c76-2f8f-4cd0-9742-3e0bb15b65f0`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official California legislature records).