The October 12 deadline has passed for Gavin Newsom to sign or veto this legislative session’s handiwork. It’s hard to establish a theme for the governor’s decisions, except that he clearly was mindful of national public perceptions as he mulls a presidential run.

For instance, he vetoed five reparations-related bills that would have given the descendants of slaves priority treatment in university admissions, business licenses and access to a state first-time home-loan program. As KQED noted, lawmakers tailored the bills to benefit descendants of enslaved people as a means to get around California’s prohibition on racial quotas. Newsom correctly viewed some of these measures as legally dubious.

Newsom also vetoed an overly expansive and First-Amendment-threatening measure (Senate Bill 77

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