ICYMI

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and Gov. Ron DeSantis are busy, busy, busy this month defending their biased voting law, underhanded migrant relocation, ban on diversity training in the workplace, and other dirty tricks you may have missed.

» AG Moody again targets privacy clause in fight over proposed 15-week abortion ban

Legal wrangling continued this week over an attempt to halt a new Florida law that prevents abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Lawyers for the state filed a 40-page document urging the Florida Supreme Court to reject an emergency motion by seven abortion clinics and a doctor that would effectively put the 15-week law on hold while a legal battle plays out. Lawyers for the clinics and the doctor, Shelly Hsiao-Ying Tien, filed the emergency motion Aug. 31. The privacy clause plays a key role in their arguments that the law (HB 5) should be blocked.

“This (Supreme) Court has long held, and consistently reaffirmed, that the Florida Constitution’s Privacy Clause protects the right to abortion prior to viability,” the emergency motion said. “And this court has made clear that any law that implicates the fundamental right to privacy — as HB 5 unquestionably does — is presumptively unconstitutional.”

Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office contended that the clinics and the doctor have not shown “irreparable harm” needed to temporarily block the law, an assertion that echoed a decision by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal. Lawyers for the clinics and the doctor dispute the appellate court’s conclusion on irreparable harm. Moody’s office also disputed arguments that the 15-week limit violates a privacy clause in the state Constitution that has long served as the linchpin for abortion access in Florida. If justices ultimately agree, they would reverse more than 30 years of legal precedent that have helped protect abortion rights in the state.

» State of Florida presses forward on battle to prevent diversity workplace training

Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody are appealing a federal judge’s ruling that blocked part of a new state law that placed restrictions on how race-related issues can be addressed in workplace training — a law DeSantis dubbed the Stop Wrongs To Our Kids and Employees Act, or “Stop WOKE Act.” Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker last month issued a preliminary injunction, agreeing with three businesses and a consultant that the workplace-training restrictions violate the First Amendment. At least three other pending federal lawsuits challenge part of the law placing restrictions on how race-related issues can be addressed in public schools and higher education. Walker’s preliminary injunction did not address the education issues.

The law (HB 7), which DeSantis signed April 22, spurred fierce debates before passing during this year’s legislative session. The employment-related part of the law lists eight race-related concepts and says that a required training program or other activity that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual (an employee) to believe any of the following concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin.” As an example of the concepts, the law targets compelling employees to believe that an “individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the individual played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin.”

» DeSantis vows to continue his controversial migrant relocation program

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday said he expects more flights to transport undocumented immigrants to out-of-state “sanctuary” communities, as questions continued to swirl about a pair of flights this week that sent about 50 people from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. With support from other Republicans, DeSantis framed the controversial flights as a protest against the Biden administration’s handling of the Mexico border and as protecting Floridians from people transporting drugs into the United States. Florida lawmakers put money in the state budget this year for DeSantis to transport undocumented immigrants. “There’s also going to be buses, and there will likely be more flights,” DeSantis said Friday afternoon. “But I’ll tell you this, the Legislature gave me $12 million. We’re going to spend every penny of that to make sure that we’re protecting the people of the state of Florida.”

The flights Wednesday mostly involved Venezuelan migrants and included about 10 children. DeSantis’ decision to launch the flights spawned international headlines and drew harsh criticism from Democrats and immigrant advocates. President Joe Biden accused Republicans of “playing politics with human beings.”

“What they’re doing is simply wrong,” the president said at a Congressional Hispanic Caucus event Thursday evening. “It’s un-American. It’s reckless.” Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka described the flights as “tantamount to a form of human trafficking for pure political games,” according to the State House News Service. DeSantis rejected as “false” reports that the migrants — who were moved Friday from Martha’s Vineyard to a military base on Cape Cod — were lured onto the flights in Texas with promises of housing and jobs.

» DeSantis administration and national GOP groups push to hold on to racist Florida elections law

Arguing that the ruling was an “insult” to Republican state leaders, lawyers for Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and national GOP groups this week tried to convince an appeals court to overturn a federal judge’s ruling that parts of a 2021 Florida elections law were intended to discriminate against Black voters. The Republican-controlled Legislature and DeSantis approved the election-law changes as GOP leaders across the country pushed to revamp voting laws after former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. While Florida had a relatively smooth 2020 election, Republicans said changes were needed to help ensure future elections would not have issues such as fraud.

The state, the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee took the case to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled that parts of the law were intended to discriminate against Black Floridians, a key voting bloc for Democrats. Walker’s March 31 ruling chronicled what he described as the state’s “grotesque history of racial discrimination,” saying that “when all of the evidence is viewed together, a coherent picture emerges.” The law placed additional restrictions on ballot drop boxes, such as limiting their use to the hours of early voting and requiring they be staffed by election supervisor’s employees. Also, the law included placing restrictions on providing food and water to people waiting in line at polling places.

Voting-rights groups filed a series of challenges to the law, with the cases consolidated by Walker. Plaintiffs argued that lawmakers imposed the drop-box changes after Black voters increased their use of the boxes for mail-in ballots. The law also established new restrictions on third-party voter registration groups, a move the plaintiffs contended was targeted at Black Floridians who are more likely to sign up to vote through such organizations.

10 ORLANDO WEEKLY ● SEPT. 21-27, 2022 ● orlandoweekly.com