Renzo Downey
Santa Rosa Beach attorney Daniel Uhlfelder is now calling on Gov. Ron DeSantis to issue a safer-at-home order statewide after filing a lawsuit this month to close all of Florida’s beaches to protect against the coronavirus.
Uhlfelder doesn’t want the Governor to issue a complete lockdown, but argues he is constitutionally required to protect Floridians from COVID-19 instead of taking what Uhlfelder told Florida Politics was a “slow-paced death march.” The lawsuit, filed Sunday, requests a ban on social and recreational gatherings of groups of 10 or more in addition to the beach closures previously demanded.
“DeSantis’s failure to use the Emergency Powers at his disposal and issue a statewide Beach Closure Order and Safer-at-Home Order is an existential threat to Floridians, many of whom are now more likely to contract this lethal disease than residents of other states,” according to the suit.
Not issuing an order will result in more sick Floridians and prolong the need for social distancing measures that harms the economy, he argues. More Floridians would become gravely ill, transmit COVID-1 to others and die without an declaration.
Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has requested DeSantis order Floridians stay home. And a “SHUTDOWN FLORIDA” Change.org petition, started just over a week ago, has garnered more than 367,000 petitions, which Uhlfelder calls a “consensus in public opinion.”
DeSantis has defended his decision to not issue a California- or New York-style lockdown, saying communities across Florida have not been equally impacted by COVID-19. But for people coming to the state from the New York City or New Orleans areas, he has said people should follow those regions’ sheltering orders.
Last week, DeSantis ordered travelers from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Louisiana in the previous three weeks and going forward to self-isolate for 14 days. Florida Highway Patrol has erected a highway checkpoint at the Alabama border to stop drivers with plans for another at the Georgia border, and the Florida National Guard is helping major airports intercept and screen plane travelers.
“Rather than myopically focusing on visitors from other states or the largest counties, DeSantis must take drastic and uniform action, including but not limited to the issuance of a statewide Beach Closure Order and a Safer-at-Home Order,” Uhlfelder wrote. “DeSantis’s patchwork response is unsustainable, inefficient, dangerous, and unconstitutional in many respects.”
People driving from New Orleans or flying from New York City are already violating their local lockdowns to travel to Florida, Uhlfelder told Florida Politics. He questioned why they would choose to self-isolate when directed to upon their entry to the state.
DeSantis has issued an executive orders limiting gatherings on Florida beaches to 10 people or less and shutting down Broward and Palm Beach county beaches. That’s similar to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to limit the community spread of the novel coronavirus.
But with beach-goers violating that routinely, particularly with spring breakers visiting the state, there has been an increasing public call for DeSantis to stop all beach visitation statewide.
Still, the Governor argues many beaches have closed voluntarily because of the manpower necessary to enforce his beach party cap.
The suit notes that Leon County, home to the Governor’s residence and office, has ordered its residents to stay at home when possible.
President Donald Trump later Sunday said he hopes the United States death toll stays down at 100,000. More than 2,400 people have died nationally, including at least 60 in Florida.
Uhlfelder gained prominence in a legal battle with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee over the ability to limit beach access in Walton County. He said he never envisioned personally suing the Florida Governor, but felt it was important to protect Floridians.
9 comments
Thomas Knapp
March 29, 2020 at 7:54 pm
OK, precisely how is DeSantis stopping Uhlfelder from staying home, forcing Uhlfelder to go to the beach, etc.?
Is he sending state troopers to Uhlfelder’s house, having them drag him out, throw him in a cruiser, and dump him on a beach with a boogie board or something?
It appears that Daniel Uhlfelder and I have a lot in common — both of us want to run my life.
Dan
March 29, 2020 at 8:44 pm
The Socialists are demanding tyranny, the Rise and Fall of the Nanny State throwing out the U.s Constitution and the Florida Constitution. Your panic does not over rule my Constitutions nor will our real leaders allow it. Socialist Dictatorships may be accepted by Cuba, Venezuela, illegal aliens or a dozen other 3rd world countries but not in the land of Liberty and freedom. Even Roosevelt ended up being over ruled as he isolated Japanese Americans using fear instead of following the Constitution.
Thomas Knapp
March 29, 2020 at 9:12 pm
According to the US Constitution (Article I, Section 9; Article V; Amendment 10), the federal government has no authority to regulate immigration, which means that there isn’t and can’t be any such thing as an “illegal alien.”
Charlotte Greenbarg
March 30, 2020 at 7:52 am
Seriously? Create your own facts much?
Thomas Knapp
March 30, 2020 at 8:02 am
Hey, if you’ve got a problem with it, take it up with the framers. They had a fight over it. The southern states refused to ratify a Constitution that let the feds regulate slave importation, and Pennsylvania refused to ratify a Constitution that let the feds regulate immigration.
And that’s how it was until the late 19th century, when an activist progressive Supreme Court magically miracled up a federal power to regulate immigration.
But even then, you didn’t even need a passport to enter the US until after World War II, and from Mexico or Canada you didn’t even need that until after 9/11.
It’s only been the last 20 years or so that the Republicans have been trying to out-Democrat the Democrats on immigration authoritarianism. And they only finally managed it by giving their presidential ballot line to a Democrat in 2016.
Full body armor
April 4, 2020 at 5:05 pm
Just reviewed the Constitutional provisions you provided for evidence of your thesis.
You need to go back to the drawing board and re-think what you said.
Thomas Knapp
April 4, 2020 at 5:09 pm
If you reviewed the constitutional provisions I cited, then there are two possibilities.
The first is that you now know I’m correct.
The second is that you need a course in remedial reading, or perhaps English as a Second Language.
I’m not terribly interested in which of those two possibilities is the case.
Jonathan Davis
March 30, 2020 at 11:30 am
There is a typo in this article. At one point you say “COVID-1” instead of COVID-19.
Regards
Full body armor
April 4, 2020 at 4:59 pm
Uhlander looks like he is after publicity for his PAC, and not much more. First he sues to open all beaches to everyone, and not to allow any private parts on any Florida beaches. Now, he insists that the Governor shut down all the beaches.
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