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Article
Courtesy of The Orlando Sentinel
By
Steven Lemongello
Published April 23, 2021
An Orlando civil rights attorney filed a federal lawsuit
Wednesday against Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and
Orange County Sheriff John Mina in what may be the first legal challenge to
Florida’s “anti-riot” law that went into effect this week.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Orlando by attorney
Aaron Carter Bates on behalf of the Lawyers Matter Task Force, a nonprofit
advocacy group.
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The suit claims that
the law, signed by DeSantis on Monday, violates several
provisions of the U.S. Constitution.
“The purpose of these laws are nothing more than an attempt
to silence the Black Lives Matter movement and other civil
organizations by limiting the ability to protest,” Bates
said in a statement. “The First Amendment is a pillar of
American democracy, and the ‘anti-riot’ laws clearly strip
Floridians of their freedom of speech and right to
assemble.”
A spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said “as
it relates to Sheriff Mina, this lawsuit is without merit
... Accordingly, we intend to file a motion to dismiss.”
A spokesman for DeSantis said the governor’s office had not
yet been served with the suit, “but we will firmly defend
the legal merits of [the bill], which protects businesses,
supports law enforcement, and ensures punishment for those
who cause violence in our communities.”
Moody’s office said it couldn’t comment on pending
litigation. |
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Governor Ron DeSantis signs ‘anti-riot’ bill into
law, sparking outcry from Democrats, civil rights groups.
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DeSantis on Monday called the law “the strongest
anti-rioting, pro-law enforcement piece of legislation in the country” that
would protect law enforcement and private property against rioters.
But Democrats and civil rights groups have criticized the law for infringing
on the First Amendment’s right to peacefully protest. The ACLU claimed the
law was “overbroad and vague” and would make it easier for law enforcement
to charge organizers and anyone involved in a protest, even if they had not
engaged in any violence.
The law also creates a broad category for misdemeanor arrest during
protests, and anyone charged under that provision will be denied bail until
their first court appearance. It creates a new felony crime of “aggravated
rioting” that carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a new crime
of “mob intimidation.”
“These statutes are unconstitutional on their face,” the lawsuit claims,
because “they target protected speech under the First Amendment [and] they
are written with the intent of defining any such protest as a ‘riot’ or
participation in such protest as ‘inciting a riot.’”
The law also would subject those arrested to “excessive bail, fines, or
cruel and unusual punishment as a means of hindering the speech of
dissenting opinions,” the suit claims, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
The law also exposes peaceful demonstrators to arrest for other people’s
conduct and doesn’t describe what specific conduct would result in a charge
of “inciting a riot,” violating the Fourteenth Amendment’s due process
provision, the suit says.
It also claims the law is “discouraging” and “intimidating” for people who
want to participate in protests.
Similar laws have been struck down on First Amendment grounds in other
states. A federal judge blocked an anti-riot law in South Dakota in 2019,
and in Virginia a court struck down a 1968 anti-riot provision in 2020.
DeSantis had pushed for the law since last year, claiming it was needed in
the wake of protests following George Floyd’s murder at the hands of
then-police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. The law, one of the first
to be signed by DeSantis this legislative session, went into effect just
hours before Chauvin’s guilty verdict was announced.
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