Jim Rosica
The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case against Gov. Rick Scott over whether he has the authority to appoint three new justices on the last day of his term.
The court on Friday set argument for 9 a.m. Nov. 1.
For now, the matter will be heard by the court’s seven justices, including the three—R. Fred Lewis, Barbara Pariente and Peggy A. Quince—whose age-required retirements occasioned the suit.
Court spokesman Craig Waters said any process for justices to recuse themselves would begin with motions to the court. “Then the justices would consider the reasons given,” he added.
“A maximum of twenty minutes to the side is allowed for the argument, but counsel is expected to use only so much of that time as is necessary,” the court’s docket said. “No continuances will be granted except upon a showing of extreme hardship.”
Progressive groups are battling Scott over whether he can replace the three liberal-leaning justices, who will be retiring in early 2019.
Scott has said he plans to name their replacements the morning of his last day in office, Jan. 8. His attorneys have argued that their age-mandated retirements also will become effective Jan. 8.
The League of Women Voters of Florida (LWVF) and Common Cause counter that Scott can’t replace those justices because he’ll be out of office earlier on the same day they retire, and their final judicial terms last till midnight.
They seek a “writ of quo warranto,” a court action against government officials to demand they prove their authority to perform a certain action.
One comment
Christopher M. Kennard
August 25, 2017 at 2:57 pm
Thank you, League of Women Voters and Common Cause, both groups whom I am proud to say I belonged to years ago, and despite the meager funds I have for covering my expenses, now that I am retired, I will contribute money to both groups again.
Thank you once more for your successful Fair Districts Acts lawsuits as well.
Our country is under attack from within, by far right-wing extremists who Scott and Trump both pander to as their political “base”. Who else would have them?
Why, Scott, Trump, the Bush Dynasty and the Clinton clan . . . they all work for the same corrupt cabal of the mega-wealthy elements of the 1% who own 90% of the world’s wealth today. Look at the pattern of elections; follow the money leading to the CIA’s secret money laundering service, the gambling casinos, such as the Resorts International Casino that lured Trump aboard many years ago, in the 1980’s, on one of the occasions when he went financially broke.
Is there really a connection between the financial world, banks, insurance companies and the pharmaceutical industry powerhouses? Yes, there are several connections, one of which keeping cannabis regulated as a Schedule II “dangerous” substance within the Controlled Substance List.
Patients in Florida who smoke cannabis for their health are now eligible to be the next large class of felons within the State of Florida.
Is this why new Florida Supreme Court Justices must be named by Scott? To support our private prison system it seems so many politicians receive campaign cash from in exchange for future contracts to build more private prisons?
These Floridians have become a distinct threat to all politicians who supported obstructing the full implementation of our new 2016 MEDICAL MARIJUANA AMENDMENT law.
Politicians acted to protect themselves by opening the door to convict patients as criminals who may disagree with them to the extent of organizing other voters to vote them out of public office in the 2018 and 2020 state elections.
For a good reason — many patients, regardless of which political party with whom they are registered, now know a little about why and how rabidly racist policies ever became a federal law in 1937, called the prohibition of “marijuana”.
Most have heard that cannabis cures cancer.
Many Florida voters understand politicians are still attempting to control us through the use of these so-called “War On Drugs” laws, so people can be arrested for smoking medicinal cannabis in the sanctity of their own homes.
The Prohibition Against Marijuana (sic) was a racist campaign begun over 100 years ago against Mexican immigrants. It expanded to be a law enforcement tool for community control, surveillance and an.easy-to-use mechanism to arrest large numbers of people. Although it is still discriminatory applied against Black and Hispanic citizens, felony convictions for cannabis users are growing closer to be all inclusive — black and white, alike! All 99% of the American People.
Our new class of potential Florida Felons, however, may not be so easy to control.
STOP THE ARRESTS OF THOUSANDS OF FLORIDIANS
RESTORE RIGHT OF FELONS TO VOTE
FREE FLORIDA PATIENTS TO SMOKE & GROW
Most patients have heard that cannabis cures cancer; many by their doctors.
The vast majority of Florida voters understand that politicians are still attempting to control us through the use of these so-called “War On Drugs” laws, so people can be arrested for smoking medicinal cannabis in the safe sanctity of their own homes.
Our state’s patients may be forming the new class of potential Florida Felons, however, they may not be so easy to control.
From 1980 on the new Reagan war on drugs led to the nationwide institutionalized process of convicting citizens as felons for cannabis use. It was a means to deny cannabis users the right to vote. Denial of the right to vote renders U.S. citizens to be “stateless” belonging to no country; forbidden to go to other countries; unable to vote in elections in the USA.
My name is Chris Kennard, and I am a volunteer coordinator and petition drive organizer for the FLORIDIANS FOR FREEDOM (FFF).
This group of everyday, ordinary Floridian citizens formed a non-partisan volunteer citizen’s campaign movement in 2015, after the first Medical Marijuana law failed to secure enough votes. It was decided to legalize cannabis through the state constitutional ballot initiative, which we hope to do in our election of 2018.
End the prohibition of cannabis in Florida. Make it legal for adults to possess, use and grow our own cannabis, on private property, within our own homes and home gardens for medicinal purposes, or for personal use, to simply to kick back, relax and enjoy at home. Once we enact our constitutional law to be legal, it is our right!
Statistics repeatedly show that removal of the right to vote cripples most people’s ability to become law abiding citizens once again, able and willing to contribute to our communities and country. Minority groups and dissidents of the far right-wing politician’s policies have been targeted for repression and reprisal, rendering many unable to vote due to felony convictions for cannabis use. It is an easy to use way to control people.
John Morgan just filed a lawsuit against the Florida Legislature for not following the wishes of 71.3% of Florida’s voters who voted last year to approve the 2016 MEDICAL MARIJUANA AMENDMENT II. Now it has become a court case.
The right of a patient in Florida to use the medicine of their choice, with the advice and medical approval the patient’s physician, has once again been trampled by the State of Florida. Politicians once again has ignored medical science and decided to deny patients their right to therapeutically use cannabis by inhaling the smoke of this medicinal herb, even when prescribed by a patient’s physician who knows best.
Our politicians believe they can dictate to all patients in our state as to what medicine they are “allowed” to use and which medicine they are not allowed to use. This is governmental over-reach, with the threat of police storm troopers raiding Florida patient’s homes to arrest medicinal users of cannabis and destroy the plants they may be growing for personal use, to stay alive.
Former President of the FLORIDIANS FOR FREEDOM, Cathy Jordan, an ALS patient who is one of the longest living ALS patients using cannabis, will testify on the validity and appropriateness of the use of smoking cannabis to stay alive for as many years as she can.
ALS patients usually pass away within 7 years. Cathy and Bob Jordan just celebrated Cathy’s 31st anniversary date after her ALS diagnosis in 1986, making Cathy a modern miracle and medical mystery explained by the medicinal use of smoking cannabis regularly. For years, these two told our Florida State Legislature about the use of medicinal cannabis, with Cathy’s physicians testifying it was true.
Most of these politicians, Democrats and Republicans, did not listen or seem to care, until several of the children suffering from epilepsy appealing for legal medicinal use of cannabis died, forcing these politicians to do something!
We say it is time to conduct a peaceful people’s “political revolution” campaign to restore our Civil Rights, and we intend to do so by mounting a successful wave of volunteers to collect signed RIGHT OF ADULTS TO CANNABIS ballot initiative petitions from registered Florida voters. We expect to collect 78, 000 by this coming December of 2017. A tall order, but certainly doable!
On August 26, 2015, two years ago, the Floridians For Freedom filed this petition, called RIGHT OF ADULTS TO CANNABIS (RAC) [Ballot Initiative # 15-20] with the State of Florida. Go to FloridiansForFreedom.com to print out a copy to read, and if you agree, to date, sign and send it by mail to us.
Our proposed state constitutional law provides adults in Florida over the age of twenty-one the right to possess, use and grow their cannabis for medicinal purposes or personal use, to relax and enjoy on private property and within the safe sanctity your own home.
It stops the arrest of people before they can be convicted for cannabis related violations. Cannabis will be legal. No one can be arrested for private adult cannabis use on private property. Medicinal users can safely smoke at home.
We are citizens like many of you who no longer trust our state’s politicians to legalize cannabis, so we joined together in 2014 when the first Medical Marijuana Amendment failed and wrote our own law with the assistance of an attorney.
It is how we can conduct a people’s peaceful “political revolution” where we both change our state of Florida and influence our country by voting for good, sound, workable policies and laws under which we shall live and of which we approve.
We vote on these new laws in November of 2018 and two months later, our new RIGHT OF ADULTS TO CANNABIS law “self-actuates” to be effective on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 regarding personal use by adults in Florida to possess use and grow their own. Neither law will be delayed, derailed or denied, once Florida voters approve this new constitutional amendment law.
Print a copy from FloridiansForFreedom.com
You might like it! Even if you signed one, please consider helping just a little more, and collect two more signed petitions to send in.! Now do the same with the Voting Restoration Amendment.
If you really like them, please make three copies; sign one, and pass two on to two other registered Florida voters to copy. Ask voters to sign one and pass two along to create a continuous cannabis and right to vote “daisy chain-reaction” of petitions being signed . . . a people’s peaceful path of three steps leading to a collection of a million signed petitions, drawn from every one of our 67 counties within Florida.
This would work! It is more proof that voters, themselves, can elect their own representatives on the local, state and national levels of government, and create our own laws under which we live, those laws which voters in Florida approved, without resorting to international corporate secret slush funds or any questionable mega-wealthy donor’s election campaign cash.
Hope to hear from you soon! Peace Love Light within and with you, always!
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