Jacksonville to defend gay rights law after appeals court spiked it
Jacksonville General Counsel Jason Gabriel.

Jason Gabriel
The appeals court ruling isn't the end of the road.

Jacksonville’s General Counsel decried a “mindboggling” and “bizarre” appeals court ruling against a local LGBT rights law this weekend and vowed to fight to defend the law.

“It’s a hyper-technical ruling with some bizarre findings,” said Jason Gabriel, the city’s head lawyer.

“The city appropriately published (didn’t drop the ball in any way). Rules have been on the books for enforcement in their entirety since the law was passed in early 2017,” Gabriel contends, noting that the county court agreed with the city.

“For anyone to think the city dropped some part of this (and didn’t fix it for that matter) in the subsequent three years since its passage is mindboggling to me,” Gabriel added.

Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal reversed a decision by a Duval County court to dismiss a challenge to the city’s expansion of its Human Rights Ordinance.

The court sided with plaintiffs, who contended that amendments approved in 2017 were “null and void” because their adoption violated state law.

The city approved a swath of code changes as part of what was popularly called “passing the HRO,” but plaintiffs led by the social conservative Liberty Counsel contended those changes were not laid out and that the Office of General Counsel would “write the ordinance later.”

The county court did not entertain this argument, contending the plaintiffs lacked standing and could not challenge the law until they could demonstrate being adversely impacted by it.

The appeals court saw it differently, saying the city violated “governing principles of notice and due process.”

Gabriel notes that the “full text of the rules … was set forth for the Council and the public, both before or after enactment, and was immediately officially published after enactment,” a contradiction of the opinion from the 1st DCA reads.

The Office of General Counsel is “reviewing all opportunities at this point in order to advise City Council appropriately, and that includes all legal, appellate, or legislative options.”

“The city takes this issue very seriously,” Gabriel added.

Incoming City Council President Tommy Hazouri, who sponsored the 2017 legislation, said Friday all options are on the table, including potentially passing the law again. The city’s general counsel confirmed that potential cure is on the table, as is an appeal to what is currently a conservative Florida Supreme Court.

The bill passed 12-6 in 2017, approved by a City Council that has seen change in membership since. Republican Mayor Lenny Curry did not back the legislation, which became law without his signature.

It remains to be seen how eager this Council is to take up an issue that thoroughly exhausted the previous group.

The “damn HRO is back, as if JEA, 1/2 cent sales tax for DCPS, a global pandemic (Covid-19), economic challenges and hurricane season on the damn horizon aren’t enough…this isn’t what I thought our service would (look) like 10 months in,” groused first-term Democrat Brenda Priestly-Jackson.

Jacksonville had one of the worst ratings for LGBT rights in a major city before the HRO passed, according to the Human Rights Campaign, but great strides have been made since.

A rating of 23 out of 100 in 2015 has since surged to 79 out of 100 in 2019.

Read the decision here.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


2 comments

  • Frankie M.

    May 5, 2020 at 11:08 am

    Can we count on Mayor Lenny to support HRO part deux as much as he pushed for HRO 1.0, pension tax, & education sales tax referendums? Well 1 out of 4 ain’t bad.

    • JaxFax

      May 9, 2020 at 5:52 pm

      Good idea for a referendum Frankie M. Just like with JEA where is the people’s voice?

Comments are closed.


#FlaPol

Florida Politics is a statewide, new media platform covering campaigns, elections, government, policy, and lobbying in Florida. This platform and all of its content are owned by Extensive Enterprises Media.

Publisher: Peter Schorsch @PeterSchorschFL

Contributors & reporters: Phil Ammann, Drew Dixon, Roseanne Dunkelberger, A.G. Gancarski, Anne Geggis, Ryan Nicol, Jacob Ogles, Cole Pepper, Gray Rohrer, Jesse Scheckner, Christine Sexton, Drew Wilson, and Mike Wright.

Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @PeterSchorschFL
Phone: (727) 642-3162
Address: 204 37th Avenue North #182
St. Petersburg, Florida 33704




Sign up for Sunburn


Categories