WEEKLY ROUNDUP
Governing inside the lines
TALLAHASSEE — Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker this week said that governing “within the bounds set by the United States Constitution” hasn’t been Florida’s strong suit in recent years, as he blocked parts of a new elections law challenged by voter-registration groups.
In a 58-page decision released Monday, Walker issued a preliminary injunction against two provisions of the law (SB 7050) that would prevent non-U.S. citizens from “collecting or handling” voter-registration applications and make it a felony for voter-registration group workers to keep personal information of voters.
“Florida may, of course, regulate elections, including the voter registration process,” Walker acknowledged in the ruling siding with groups such as the NAACP, the League of Women Voters of Florida and Hispanic Federation.
“Here, however, the challenged provisions exemplify something Florida has struggled with in recent years; namely, governing within the bounds set by the United States Constitution,” the judge added. “When state government power threatens to spread beyond constitutional bounds and reduce individual rights to ashes, the federal judiciary stands as a firewall.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the measure in May, greenlighting a series of changes to Florida’s elections system with a focus on “third-party” voter registration groups. The governor and other Republican leaders contended that the 2023 law would make elections in the Sunshine State more secure.
Under one part of the law blocked by Walker, groups could face a $50,000 fine for each non-citizen collecting or handling registration applications.
During a hearing last week that preceded the judge’s decision, Mohammad Jazil, an attorney for the DeSantis administration, pointed to concerns about voter-registration applications being turned in late to elections officials.
Jazil said that people who are not U.S. citizens, such as students from other countries or people who have temporary legal immigration status, “are not bound to the community” and thus could be at risk for not turning in applications on time.
But the groups that challenged the law argued that the restriction on non-citizens violates constitutional equal-protection rights — an argument that was backed by Walker.
In blocking a second part of the law that deals with registration groups keeping voters’ personal information, Walker said the provision is too vague and wrote that it “leaves open a broad universe of what could be considered ‘personal’ information.”
CANCELING ‘CANCEL CULTURE’
The New College of Florida Board of Trustees this week moved forward with a plan to request $2 million from the state Legislature to set up a “Freedom Institute” aimed at combating “cancel culture” in higher education.
“There is a tremendous move nationwide to ensure that our college campuses are true marketplaces of ideas, where you can allow your mind to explore the great reaches of everything,” New College Interim President Richard Corcoran said during Thursday’s trustees meeting. “And right now there is a tremendous cancel culture that is existing in higher ed. There’s a tremendous pushback against that cancel culture.”
The bulk of the $2 million request — $1,755,000 — would go toward hiring “scholars to work and teach” on the New College campus. Courses taught by the new faculty members would be offered to students for credit.
But goals laid out for the institute also included purposes beyond providing classes to New College students.
For example, the institute would offer “short courses open to the public in Sarasota and across Florida,” hold live events “promoting New College’s and Florida’s free speech principles,” and “create and deliver professional development programs” for school teachers and university professors.
The trustees board, revamped by DeSantis in January when he appointed a slate of new members to the panel, has ushered in various changes to the small liberal-arts college amid an effort by the governor and other state leaders to remake the school.
One of the changes installed Corcoran, a Republican former state House speaker and state education commissioner, as New College’s interim leader.
Corcoran suggested Thursday that the proposed Freedom Institute could help net new donors and enhance the school’s profile.
“In addition to that, to go out there and hit up additional donor bases saying, what we’re doing to model free speech — whether it’s in K-12 arenas, higher-ed arenas, whatever it might be — in boardrooms … and going out and having it flourish nationwide, would be a tremendous benefit in attracting additional experts, speakers, debates to come to New College,” Corcoran said.
The New College trustees also on Thursday approved an additional plan to request $6.035 million to develop three new master’s programs. The new degree programs would be a master’s in marine mammal science, a master’s of environmental economics and policy, and a master’s of educational leadership.
The funding proposals are subject to approval by lawmakers during the 2024 legislative session.
FAMU LAWSUIT REVISED
After a federal judge rejected an earlier version of the case, attorneys for Florida A&M University students this week filed a revised lawsuit alleging that the historically Black university “remains separate and unequal” to other schools in the state.
The potential class-action lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. district court in Tallahassee, alleges that the state has violated federal laws, in part by not establishing high-demand academic programs at FAMU and by shortchanging the school financially.
When U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle last month dismissed a previous version of the lawsuit, he said plaintiffs’ attorneys would have to provide more evidence to show that alleged discrimination could be traced to segregation.
The revised legal challenge included comparisons of issues such as academic programs, funding and faculty salaries to try to show that vestiges of segregation remain in the university system.
For example, the lawsuit alleges that FAMU faculty members are paid less than counterparts at other Florida universities and that FAMU has been hurt financially by issues such as the state’s performance-based funding system, which helps determine how much money goes to schools.
STORY OF THE WEEK: Saying the case “arises from Florida’s latest assault on the right to vote,” a federal judge Monday blocked parts of a new elections law challenged by voter-registration groups.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “The Free State of Florida is simply not free to exceed the bounds of the United States Constitution.” — Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker.