Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Jim RosicaJanuary 9, 2017

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The Above The Law legal website is “handicapping Donald Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist” – and Florida Supreme Court Justice Charles Canady isn’t on it. “In case you missed it over the holidays, Jan Crawford of CBS News, one of the most plugged-in Supreme Court reporters around, revealed Trump’s five finalists” to replace the late Antonin […]

Joe HendersonDecember 28, 2016

Politicians have long been outraged – OUTRAGED, I tell you – about so-called “activist judges” who make them follow that pesky thing known as the law. I guess it’s logical, therefore, for frustrated lawmakers to try and beat judges at their own game. FloridaPolitics.com reported that State Rep. Julio Gonzalez, a Republican from Venice, filed […]

Jenna Buzzacco-FoersterDecember 27, 2016

Lawmakers could override court decisions they don’t like under bills filed Tuesday. State Rep. Julio Gonzalez, a Venice Republican, filed two pieces of legislation, one aimed at state judges and another at federal judges who interpret state laws. The first measure (HJR 121) would allow the Legislature to review judicial rulings that declare legislative acts void. If approved […]

Martin DyckmanDecember 26, 2016

There are some things that only lawyers can explain. This is one of them. But I defy them to make sense of it. Just in time for Christmas, the Florida Supreme Court in two cases last week gave new leases on life to 213 convicted killers but turned down about 173 more. The only difference […]

Jim RosicaDecember 23, 2016

The state’s leading death penalty opposition group is calling for more than 200 Florida death row inmates to have their sentences reduced to life imprisonment. Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty (FADP) says a Florida Supreme Court decision on convicted killer Mark Asay out Thursday means that many are “entitled to be resentenced.” The court […]

Joe HendersonOctober 24, 2016

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One of the themes of Hillary Clinton’s campaign for the presidency has been her opposition to Citizens United. From the podium, she preaches that she doesn’t like the idea of the wealthy few using their money to buy influence over policies that determine the future for the rest of us. She says he wants to […]

Martin DyckmanOctober 8, 2016

What sort of Supreme Court justices would Donald Trump appoint? For an insight, consider the case of Kathy Johnson v. Omega Insurance Co., decided by the Florida Supreme Court Sept. 29. One of his prospective nominees was on the wrong side of that. The business model of an insurance company is to take as much […]

Jim RosicaSeptember 29, 2016

With less than a week before a trial over their blackjack games begins, the Seminole Tribe of Florida has removed James E. Billie as tribal chairman. Billie was ousted Wednesday in a 4-0 vote of the tribe’s governing council, Law 360 reported, citing “various issues with policies and procedures of the chairman’s office.” Gary Bitner, spokesman for […]

Guest AuthorSeptember 28, 2016

W.E.B. Dubois once said, “To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires.” I hear Dubois when I see the academic results for black students. Year after year, the outcomes remain unbearable and unconscionable. More than 60 years after the U.S. Supreme Court declared an official end to separate-but-unequal schools, only […]

Brendan FarringtonSeptember 9, 2016

The Florida Supreme Court reduced the sentence of a death row inmate Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered it to reconsider his intellectual abilities based on factors other than his IQ. Freddie Lee Hall, 71, will now serve a life sentence for the 1978 murder of a 21-year-old pregnant woman who was abducted while […]

Tag: U.S. Supreme Court

Charles Canady may be off Donald Trump’s Supreme Court wish list

Joe Henderson: Separation of powers there to keep legislators from running amok

Legislation would allow lawmakers to override judges’ rulings

Retiring Justice gives final voice of reason on Florida’s death penalty

After Asay decision, anti-death penalty advocates call for commutations

Joe Henderson: Hillary Clinton, Citizens United and ‘never-ending’ thirst for cash

Martin Dyckman: Donald Trump pick Charles Canady could bring ‘dog whistles’ to SCOTUS

James E. Billie ousted as head of state’s Seminole Tribe

Mark Coats: Time to stop fighting school choice

Death to life: Florida reduces disabled murderer’s sentence