Florida Politics - Campaigns & Elections. Lobbying & Government.

Jim RosicaApril 18, 2016

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Florida Chief Justice Jorge Labarga is heading to the White House on Tuesday. This’ll be the second year he’s participated in the White House Forum on Increasing Access to Justice. Labarga is one of one of six state chief justices attending the event. The nation’s brightest legal minds will seek answers to providing civil legal help […]

Guest AuthorApril 17, 2016

The Obama Administration is applying a full-court press on the issue of the U.S. Supreme Court vacancy created by the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. President Barack Obama made the case for his nominee last week at the University of Chicago Law School, an institution that the White House said “helped shape his dedication to […]

Darryl PaulsonApril 13, 2016

In 1868, Florida passed a law making it illegal for a “Negro man and a white woman … who are not married to each other … to habitually live in and occupy in the nighttime the same room.” Violation of the law was a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail and […]

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 […]

Mark FerruloMarch 22, 2016

There’s never been a more unpredictable, volatile election. Or one where the stakes are so high. And, in Florida, where we have a history of extremely close elections, voters won’t only be selecting candidates for president and the U.S. Senate this year. They will also be deciding who sits on the U.S. Supreme Court for […]

A.G. GancarskiMarch 16, 2016

The first news release announcing Merrick Garland‘s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court was simple: “NOMINATION SENT TO THE SENATE: Merrick B. Garland, of Maryland, to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, vice Antonin Scalia, deceased.” President Barack Obama‘s shop asserts that “Merrick Garland, the Chief Judge of the U.S. […]

Martin DyckmanMarch 14, 2016

Florida has a new death-sentencing law to replace what the U.S. Supreme Court threw out two months ago. On balance, it’s an improvement. Jurors must now identify, unanimously, any of the reasons — what the law calls aggravating circumstances — why a person they have convicted of a capital crime should die rather than serve […]

Jim RosicaMarch 7, 2016

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Gov. Rick Scott has signed into law a measure that overhauls Florida’s death penalty by requiring that at least 10 out of 12 jurors recommend an execution for it to be ordered. Scott approved the bill (HB 7101) on Monday, according to a statement from his office. Florida previously only required that a majority of jurors […]

Gary FineoutMarch 4, 2016

With executions halted and the prosecution of some murder cases in limbo, the Florida Legislature overhauled the state’s death penalty law Thursday in response to a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court that the current sentencing law is unconstitutional. Legislators sent to Gov. Rick Scott a bill that would require that at least 10 out […]

Associated PressMarch 2, 2016

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Florida’s high court has delayed the execution of a convicted killer while lawmakers determine how to change the state’s death penalty sentencing system to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that found it unconstitutional. The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the March 17 execution of Mark Asay, a Jacksonville man sentenced to death […]

Tag: U.S. Supreme Court
Image via AP.

Florida’s top jurist to talk legal funding in DC

Jesse Panuccio: The Supreme Court and the rule of law

Darryl Paulson: Never mix love and government

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

Mark Ferrulo: Campaign trying to boost registration of people who rarely vote

Florida’s U.S. Senate candidates, pols react to Merrick Garland SCOTUS nomination

Martin Dyckman: Despite new law, Florida’s death penalty process flawed

Rick Scott signs death penalty overhaul into law

Florida overhauls death penalty in bid to resume executions

Execution delayed while lawmakers work to fix system