So what’s new in DuhSantistan?

I'm not sure. I offered input a little while back on the language, but I'm not sure how it has changed since. It's not a project I'm leading or overly involved with due to commitments elsewhere.

That's the fear. People are being very deliberate about ensuring the language complies with all the applicable rules and Fla. S. Ct. precedents. That doesn't mean they still won't try to block it on purely partisan grounds, but at least they'll look bad if that happens.

 

No, the majority of voters didn't elect him to ban abortions. The majority of Floridians want a woman's right to access abortion protected.

 

It is going to be very difficult to draft. It can't be a blanket unfettered right to abortion at any time during term, that won't pass. Invoking Roe's balancing test will be difficult to word in a way that will pass the intense judicial scrutiny the proposed amendment will be subjected to.

The brightest legal minds in the country should collaborate on a model abortion rights amendment that can be tweaked for each state, if necessary. Every state should get an initiative on their 2024 general ballot to help boost voter turnout. I would not rely on a general privacy amendment to guarantee those rights. One thing should be very clear now:

What a Supreme Court giveth, a Supreme Court can taketh away.

 

If the "vast majority of Floridians" who voted for him wanted him to relentlessly attack our free speech rights, I think those people are shameful and unAmerican. I'd like to hope they're bothered by that aspect of his governance too.

It wasn't a blanket unfettered right back when I saw the language.

 

Even an unfettered right would be nullified by the state passing pretextual health and safety laws that make it practically impossible to access the services, even if you nominally have the "right" to receive them. The playbook is already there from the Roe era.

Not to mention, there's all sorts of other creative ways to effectively block abortions, like the Texas-style nonsense of creating civil causes of action.

With a hostile legislature, governor, and FCS, there's just no way to constitutionally guarantee abortion access in any form. You would have to pass a gargantuan ballot amendment that not only guarantees the right, but also explicitly forbids the countless possible nullifiers. But there's just no chance such a measure would ever be allowed on the ballot.

The only way the voters in Florida can protect the right to choose is by voting in reps who are willing to do so.

 

We have some tricks here in Florida that could undermine a Texas-style bill. But you're right, it'll be hard to have an effective right with a state supreme "court" that isn't interested in enforcing it.

 

DeSantis purged Pinellas’ public housing board long before New College overhaul


"The Pinellas County Housing Authority sought a veteran and skilled administrator as it homed in on a new executive director last summer.

It never completed its search.

The Housing Authority’s board of commissioners had narrowed its list to three finalists on Aug. 19 when, hours later, Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced the entire board.

Although the new commissioners had little experience in public housing, they subsequently tossed the list of executive director finalists and came up with their own. In November, they voted to hire Neil Brickfield, a former one-term Pinellas County commissioner best known for pushing to remove tooth-protecting fluoride from the drinking water supply."

DeSantis purged Pinellas’ public housing board long before New College overhaul

 

Cronyism runs rampant under the DeSantis regime.

 

Freedom of the press is the next item he is attacking. Have the legislature pass a law that conflicts with Russell v NY Times and then have it pushed up to the USSC to see if the Federalist Society that controls the court will nullify Sullivan

DeSantis, Republicans Getting Serious About Intimidating Media With Lawsuits (msn.com)

The target of a grievance shared by Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis is New York Times v. Sullivan, which established that public figures alleging defamation (either written libel or spoken slander) must show they were falsely and maliciously accused of something that unjustly damaged their reputations. Showing that the allegedly defamatory statements were true was held to provide an absolute defense to the suits. But the requirement that accidental or withdrawn criticisms of politicians would generally be protected “absent malice” discouraged a lot of litigation from powerful and/or wealthy interests hoping to shut down negative media exposure.
.................
It wouldn’t be hard in Republican-controlled Florida to enact a state defamation law triggering review of Sullivan much as a Mississippi abortion law led to the demise of Roe. And one of DeSantis’s allies in the Florida legislature has introduced legislation that looks sufficient to get the job done, as the Tampa Bay Times reports:


Last year, the governor’s office floated a proposal to lawmakers that would have made it easier in Florida to sue news organizations for defamation. … Rep. Alex Andrade [has introduced a bill that] goes further in its disruption of Florida media law. The bill would limit who is considered a public figure for the purposes of defamation suits and could make it more difficult for media outlets to use anonymous sources. The bill could also have a chilling effect on news outlets reporting about people accused of discriminating against others on the basis of race, sexuality or gender identity, legal experts say.

This last provision, which might well have helped the original segregationist litigants in the Sullivan case, treats allegations of discrimination as inherently defamatory, relieving the alleged bigot of any obligation to show injury.

 

It's hard to underscore just how bad and dangerous of a law this is. I know multiple First Amendment litigators and law professors who were taken aback by how brazenly unconstitutional and harmful it is. And it's one of those laws that is going to prove very difficult to challenge, unless somebody is willing to risk the huge financial penalties that come with violating it (like the Texas anti-abortion law).

The law tries to turn core political speech into defamation and take away truth as a defense for people who criticize anti-LGBTQ folks. It's an act of manifest cowardice. UnAmerican is the only proper way to describe it and the people who support it.

 

In listing their approved books, the FL DOE misspelled "ninth" and "twelfth." They spelled them "nineth" and "twelth":

 

Just locking in laughing stock status for us. Good job, Florida Department of Censorship and Educational Controls*.

* Formally known as Florida Department of Education.

 

I haven’t seen this beauty posted yet.

DeSantis Rolls Out Red Carpet for Sexist Boob From Idaho

 

Can’t wait to hear from the whackos who try and rationalize the hire.

 

Prediction: The vast majority of the usual suspects will not have a problem with it. They are overwhelming male, are generally on board with anything DeSantis does and, in private, probably agree with a lot of the things this guy has stated.

 

Also what scares me is that even if someone has the balls and financial resources to challenge the law it could still be upheld by Trump's handpicked SCOTUS. Although Trump is no longer the president and he most likely will never hold political office again the damage that he and Mitch McConnell have done by packing the Supreme Court could last for decades.

 

full on hands maiden tale..DeSantis obviously beleives inthis approach and thinks it will sell across the country..smdh..maybe his greatest weakness will be the fact that he is surrounded by people who will not tell him no so he can go full stupid on the national scale.

disappointed that his wife goes along with this stuff. can't imagine that she actually feels this way or has she lost herself to his dominance and purstui of power and fame?

DeSantis’ wife, Casey, went on Twitter and announced, “Thrilled to welcome @scottyenor from the Claremont Institute to his new home in Tallahassee.”

Casey Desantis’ mother is a speech pathologist. Casey herself has a bachelor’s of science degree in economics and was a TV news reporter and host before she married Ron DeSantis. She is a particularly hard-working first lady and mother of two young daughters and a son. But that was all she said publicly about a man who would have her girls relinquish any career dreams and bend subserviently to male leadership.

The Florida governor’s office did not respond to a query regarding Casey DeSantis' feelings regarding Yenor’s views on women. Claremont did not respond to a Daily Beast request for the particulars of the “state coalitions,” but DeSantis’ where woke goes to die doctrine is the template. And the coalitions will be handy, pre-existing, state-level organizations should he run for president, as everybody expects.

But in allying himself with Yenor, DeSantis risks alienating voters who actually believe in gender equality. You have to wonder how a man with daughters fails to challenge Yenor’s benighted views. DeSantis’ sister was in finance before her untimely death. His mother was a nurse. His maternal aunt is a nun and a former parochial school principal, as well as a volunteer with a progressive center that helps immigrants and the homeless.

 

Exactly l. They have no idea who he is or what he represents. He is an ideologue along the lines of Chris Rufo. Both come from the same Christian fundamentalist right wing Think Tanks that spend vasts amounts of money how to promote white-christian indoctrination through schools, amongst other things. It is beyond bizarre that any rational Floridian would want such people in our government. But that is where we are, because we have an authoritarian that dictates exactly what is happening, how it happens, with no question and no checks and balances.

 

She's fully on board and as power hungry as her husband is. She uses her kids as props in his pro Trump ads.