Florida

Sides battle in Florida ‘Legislative Privilege’ case

Published

7 months ago

May 14, 2024

Sides battle in Florida ‘Legislative Privilege’ case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Arguing that the issue is moot, voting-rights groups on Friday urged an appeals court to reject an attempt by the state House and Senate to shield lawmakers and legislative staff members from testifying in redistricting lawsuits.

Lawyers for the groups filed a 44-page brief at the 1st District Court of Appeal that said they decided in December 2022 not to continue seeking depositions of lawmakers and staff members as part of a constitutional challenge to a congressional redistricting plan passed in spring 2022.

As a result, the groups said an appeal of an October 2022 decision by a Leon County circuit judge that could have led to depositions is moot.

But attorneys for the House and the Senate have continued pursuing the appeal, arguing that a legal concept known as “legislative privilege” bars requiring testimony from lawmakers. Ultimately, the House and Senate want to take the issue to the Florida Supreme Court and to undo a 2013 ruling that allowed such testimony in certain circumstances.

The voting-rights groups’ brief said that “in December 2022, there was no longer a live issue — or even the threat of one — for this (appeals) court to resolve.”

“This appeal is unquestionably moot,” the brief said. “It challenges the circuit court’s October 27, 2022, order allowing appellees (the voting-rights groups) to depose a limited subset of legislators and staff involved in the 2022 congressional redistricting process on a limited number of topics. But those depositions never happened.”

In a March 11 brief, however, attorneys for the House and the Senate argued that the “appeal raises questions of great public importance” and that the 1st District Court of Appeal should send the case to the Florida Supreme Court. The Legislature ultimately wants the Supreme Court to “recede” — essentially reverse course — from the 2013 ruling in a case known as Apportionment IV.

“Apportionment IV erred in rejecting an absolute legislative privilege in civil cases and instead establishing a shapeless, standardless balancing analysis as the purported safeguard of the prerogatives of the legislative branch,” the March brief said. “That error threatens the legislative process with grave consequences and should be overruled.”

A coalition of groups, such as the League of Women Voters of Florida and Equal Ground Education Fund, and individual plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in 2022 challenging the constitutionality of a redistricting plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature. They contend the plan violated a 2010 constitutional amendment that set redistricting standards, including a standard that said plans could not “diminish” the ability of minorities to “elect representatives of their choice.”

The 1st District Court of Appeal in December 2023 upheld the constitutionality of the plan, and the groups have appealed to the Supreme Court, where that issue is pending.

But as part of the case, the plaintiffs in 2022 also sought depositions from six current and former lawmakers and five current and former staff members. The Legislature fought the depositions, but Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh in October 2022 said he would allow the lawmakers and staff members to be questioned, with some limits.

Marsh cited the 2013 Supreme Court precedent.

“The appropriate line in this case is where the doors to the House and Senate meet the outside world,” Marsh wrote. “Accordingly, each legislator and legislative staff member may be questioned regarding any matter already part of the public record and information received from anyone not elected to the Legislature, their direct staff members or the staff of the legislative bodies themselves. They may not be questioned as to information internal to each legislative body that is not already public record (e.g., their thoughts or opinions or those of other legislators.)”

In addition to arguing that the appeal of Marsh’s ruling is moot, lawyers for the voting-rights groups also wrote in Friday’s brief that there is “no absolute legislative privilege in Florida.”

But in the March brief, attorneys for the House and the Senate wrote that historically, “the legislative privilege safeguarded the integrity and independence of the legislative process and assured that fear of personal repercussions would not sway the votes of lawmakers or chill the freedom of speech and action in legislative deliberations.”

The current and former lawmakers involved in the dispute are former House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor; former Sen. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero; former Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach; Sen. Jennifer Bradley, R-Fleming Island; Rep. Tom Leek, R-Ormond Beach; and Rep. Tyler Sirois, R-Merritt Island. Each had a leadership role in the 2022 redistricting process.

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Florida

U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent is transferring to Florida

Published

3 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

U.S. Amateur runner-up Noah Kent is transferring to Florida

Noah Kent is heading home.

The 2024 U.S. Amateur runner-up is transferring to Florida, he announced Saturday. The sophomore at Iowa, whose hometown is Naples, Florida, entered the transfer portal earlier this month, and he made his decision to join coach J.C. Deacon and the 2023 national champions come next fall.

Because of NCAA rules, Kent won’t be eligible to compete for Florida until the 2025-26 season, but he can finish his sophomore year with the Hawkeyes. This fall, he placed in the top 13 all four tournaments, his best finish being a T-5 at the Fighting Irish Classic.

And, of course, he has a tee time at Augusta National Golf Club in the spring.

Kent will essentially be the fourth member of Florida’s 2025 signing class, which ranked second in the country on signing day. He’ll join a talented roster that includes Parker Bell, Mathew Kress and Jack Turner, though with new NCAA roster limits coming, there’s bound to be some unprecedented roster turnover in college golf before the start of the 2025-26 season.

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Florida

State Your Case: Do Panthers or Lightning own state of Florida? | NHL.com

Published

10 hours ago

December 22, 2024

Press Room

State Your Case: Do Panthers or Lightning own state of Florida? | NHL.com

There are two NHL teams in Florida: the Florida Panthers and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

They are separated by about 250 miles and have been fierce rivals since the Panthers joined the NHL for the 1993-94 season. The Lightning joined the League a season earlier.

Florida (21-11-2) and Tampa Bay (18-10-2) meet for the first time this season at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; FDSNSUN, CRIPPS, SN, TVAS).

The teams have played each other 157 times in the regular season; the Panthers have gone 77-51-19, and the Lightning are 70-64-13. There have been 10 ties.

For years, the rivalry was a parochial affair, deeply important to hockey fans in the state but under the radar nationally. Lately, though, Florida supremacy has often meant NHL supremacy.

The Panthers are the reigning Stanley Cup champions and defeated the Lightning in five games in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round last season to start that title march. They reached the Stanley Cup Final two seasons ago, going on a miracle run before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights. The season before that, they won the Presidents’ Trophy with an NHL-best 122 points but lost to the Lightning in a second-round sweep, marking the second straight time that their noisy neighbors ended their season.

The Lightning won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021 before reaching a third straight Final in 2022, losing to the Colorado Avalanche. Tampa Bay won the Presidents’ Trophy in 2018-19.

This season, each team is on course for another appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and has a point percentage of better than .600.

So which team has the merits to claim bragging rights in this all-Florida showdown as the rivals face off for the first time this season? That’s the question debated by NHL.com senior writers Amalie Benjamin and Dan Rosen in the latest installment of State Your Case.

Benjamin: Let’s lay out what the Lightning have accomplished in their 32-season history: They’ve won the Stanley Cup three times, becoming the first team from Florida to win it when they took the championship in 2004. But that doesn’t come close to what they’ve accomplished during the past 11 seasons, starting in 2013-14, when they became a powerhouse. They’ve been to the Stanley Cup Playoffs 10 times in those 11 seasons, making the Stanley Cup Final in a whopping four of them. Let me repeat that: Four trips to the Cup Final in the past 11 seasons, winning twice, in 2020 and 2021. And if that’s not enough, they made two more trips to the Eastern Conference Final, in 2016 and 2018. Forget Florida’s team. They’re the team of the past decade in the entire NHL.

Rosen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what have you done for me lately? Florida’s team fluctuates. It was the Lightning. It is the Panthers. They’ve got the Stanley Cup. They went to the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row. Sure, a few years ago, this wasn’t even a debate. Florida’s team, the Panthers? Please. No shot. Even the top executives with the Panthers would tell you that. But things change. With success come the riches. Just think about the past three seasons for the Panthers: Presidents’ Trophy winners in 2021-22, Stanley Cup Final in 2022-23, Stanley Cup champions in 2023-24. The Lightning lost in the 2022 Cup Final, lost in the first round in six games the next season and lost in the first round in five games to the Panthers last season. Florida’s team is Florida.

Benjamin: OK, sure, you have a point. Florida has done pretty darn well lately. But let’s see how history will judge the state of Florida and its hockey teams. Hall of Famers? The Lightning have got ’em. Though Steven Stamkos has moved on to the Nashville Predators, the Hall of Fame is going to come calling, and the forward will go in as a member of the Lightning. Add in coach Jon Cooper, forward Nikita Kucherov, defenseman Victor Hedman and goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, and you’re talking at least five future Hall of Famers on a single team. That’s not just good, that’s historically good. It’s a group whose names are synonymous with winning, with the Stanley Cup, with the state of Florida. That’s powerful. That says the Lightning win this debate, no question.

Rosen: I have a question. Is Aleksander Barkov not paving his way to the Hall of Fame? Is Sergei Bobrovsky, with a Stanley Cup ring, 400-plus wins and two Vezina Trophy wins as the NHL’s best goalie, not a lock for the Hall of Fame? Is Paul Maurice, who could finish his career with at least the second-most coaching wins of all time, along with his Stanley Cup ring, not also a lock for the Hall of Fame? In the way-too-early department, could Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Reinhart be future Hall of Famers? I lied. That’s four questions. But you get the point. You brought up the Hall of Fame and I countered. That’s why the Lightning do not win this debate without question. Could they win it? Yes, certainly, if we were having this debate in 2023. It’s almost 2025. It’s a different world. It’s the Panthers’ world, at least in Florida. The Lightning are just living in it. At least the sun is still shining on them too.

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Florida

State attorney says JEA board did not violate Florida’s Sunshine Law

Published

18 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Press Room

State attorney says JEA board did not violate Florida’s Sunshine Law

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The state attorney for northeast Florida said there’s no evidence that members of the JEA board violated Florida’s “Sunshine Law” with discussions surrounding the resignation and replacement of former CEO Jay Stowe.

A source said JEA leaders met at an Avondale coffee shop to discuss the CEO stepping down. It sparked an investigation

In May, a JEA employee filed a complaint with the city’s inspector general prompting the investigation.

The Sunshine Law requires that public business be conducted at publicly-noticed meetings.

In October, the inspector general found that some board members did talk business outside of the meetings but the report made no determination on whether the Sunshine Law was violated and referred the matter to the State Attorney’s Office.

The state attorney’s office conducted its own investigation and said the allegations were “unwarranted and unfounded.”

DOCUMENT: State attorney’s report on JEA Sunshine Law investigation

It said the outside conversations did not involve JEA board business or were not covered by the Sunshine Law. The report also said that even if there had been evidence of a Sunshine Law violation, the fact that the decision to appoint Vickie Cavey as interim, and later permanent, managing director and CEO were made during public meetings would have resolved any purported violation.

Cavey responded to the investigation.

“JEA appreciates the thorough investigation by the State Attorney’s Office,” Cavey said. “The JEA Board recognizes the importance of the Sunshine Law and its obligations to comply. The report determined JEA board members complied with the law and that no criminal conduct occurred. The baseless allegations by a former employee cast a shadow over the good work our board and more than 2,200 employees do each and every day delivering foundational services to Northeast Florida. Maintaining the trust of our community is of utmost importance and this report could not have provided a clearer vindication.”

Board Chair Joseph DiSalvo made this statement in response to the report.

“On behalf of the board of directors, we appreciate the diligent work of the State Attorney’s Office. I think it is important to note their findings reinforce the fact that each member on the JEA Board of Directors fully embrace transparency and Sunshine Law compliance and our commitment to remain above reproach when it comes to ethics and integrity,” DiSalvo said.

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