Julie Delegal, Author at Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Julie DelegalApril 5, 2016

The world runs on the unpaid and underpaid work of women. Churches, schools, nonprofits, and many business offices would collapse without it. But something else has been collapsing and crumbling in our society for the past 60 years: the American family. For all the rhetoric about the “breakdown of the traditional family,” though, our leaders […]

Julie DelegalMarch 29, 2016

The law on employer-paid health care has taken some strange twists in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 decision in Hobby Lobby. Its follow-up case, Zubik v. Burwell, is before the high court now. But is there a way to reconceive health benefits as pay — and therefore as something employers have no control […]

Julie DelegalMarch 14, 2016

The gathering at All Saints Early Learning Center in Jacksonville last Thursday might have been mistaken for the kickoff to an Easter Egg hunt. Babies, preschoolers, and older siblings bounced along to Pharell Williams’ “Happy,” as they climbed on furniture and played hide-and-seek in their familiar parish hall. For former First Daughter Chelsea Clinton, the […]

Julie DelegalMarch 2, 2016

There’s nothing like the smell of mendacity in the morning, emanating from the Florida Times Union. Lawmakers announced last week that their education budget comprises the highest per-pupil expenditures in state history. Last week’s to-do about per pupil expenditures is a sleight of hand meant to draw our attention away from the fact that lawmakers want to give […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 28, 2016

As the Florida Legislature works to repair the state’s unconstitutional death penalty sentencing laws, one murder victim’s mother delivered an unusual message to Tallahassee. “Put that money somewhere else,” Darlene Farah told lawmakers on Tuesday. In an interview on Wednesday, before she attended another hearing in her daughter’s murder case, she said she spoke to […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 25, 2016

The Florida Senate has the chance to repair the state’s death penalty statutes in a way that won’t invite years of litigation. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Florida’s death penalty procedures unconstitutional. Until the Legislature acts, the state’s prosecutors have no legal avenue for pursuing death penalty cases. House Bill 7101 is a […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 24, 2016

The Florida Senate has the chance to repair the state’s death penalty statutes in a way that won’t invite years of litigation. Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declared Florida’s death penalty procedures unconstitutional. Until the Legislature acts, the state’s prosecutors have no legal avenue for pursuing death penalty cases. House Bill 7101 is a […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 15, 2016

Last December, I reported that Miami attorney Robert H. Fernandez had singled out three Duval County School Board members for public records requests. I warned that those members should prepare for political hardball, given the threats that charter school lobbyist Ralph Arza made on South Florida TV in the wake of an anti-charter school vote […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 7, 2016

Last Tuesday night, the Duval County School Board voted unanimously to build a laboratory school on Jacksonville’s west side for children with autism. Parent reaction to the Oak Hill Autism Lab School proposal has ranged from skepticism to outrage. That’s no surprise, given Duval’s record in serving students with disabilities. Even in schools where administrators […]

Julie DelegalFebruary 3, 2016

Republicans in the Florida Legislature are poised to create more damaging, expensive, unconstitutional laws that could take years to undo in the courts. They’ve done it with the death penalty. They’ve done it with their drug-testing-without-cause laws for poor people. They’ve done it, most profligately, with their gerrymandered maps. And they could do it again […]

Julie Delegal

Julie Delegal: Rick Scott should veto alimony ‘reform’ bill

Julie Delegal: Employers, paychecks, insurance, and birth control

Julie Delegal: Chelsea Clinton promotes Hillary Clinton’s early-education priorities

Julie Delegal: Lawmakers’ school-funding sleight of hand includes mendacious math

Julie Delegal: Murder victim’s mom to lawmakers: spend death penalty money elsewhere

Julie Delegal: Legislature’s death penalty “fix” is flawed

Julie Delegal: Legislature’s death penalty “fix” is flawed

Julie Delegal: Ralph Arza’s revenge and Duval’s debacle

Julie Delegal: One Duval parent on autism lab school: Show me

Julie Delegal: If passed, GOP abortion ban would violate constitution, cost taxpayers money