2012 was a busy year for the Sunshine State, and in the legal arena no less than others. In case youve been asleep at the news wheel, weve summed up what we think were some of the most significant legal stories of the year. Some radically changed the legal regimeof the state or the nation, others constituted a smack-down of Gov. Scott or the Republican Legislature, while others were sideshows that gave us something to talk about.
(Oh, and if you were asleep at the wheel, try turning your music up: as youll see below, the Florida Supreme Court says you can!)
1) Obamacare Upheld by U.S. Supreme Court ... for the Most Part
At the top of our list has to be the June 28 ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the constitutionality of what was perhaps the most controversial provision of the Democrats 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare: the individual health insurance mandate.
In a 5-to-4 decision authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, the high court in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius declined to consider the constitutionality of the entire Obamacare law, instead confining its holding to just two provisions, the insurance mandate as well as the Medicaid expansions. The court held that the mandate was constitutional because the penalties imposed by the law for failure to purchase health insurance were not really penalties despite the fact that the statute explicitly calls them penalties. Instead, they are merely taxes imposed on the uninsured, and the Supreme Court, in this decision, discovers, for the first time in Americas 236-year history, that the Constitution allows Congress to tax inactivity.
At the same time, the court struck down Obamacares stipulation that a state lose all of its Medicaid funding if does not comply with the laws directive to expand coverage from particular classes of vulnerable persons (those covered under Medicaid today: pregnant women, children, needy families, the blind, the elderly, and the disabled) to all non-elderly persons with income below 133 percent of the poverty level. The court said this provision of the Act constituted a kind of contract violation between the federal and state governments. Medicaid expansion would have to be voluntary.
Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito dissented; they said they would have struck down the entire law as unconstitutional.
2) Floridas Stand Your Ground Law in the News, Being Reconsidered
After the shooting death of teenager Trayvon Martin at the hands of volunteer crime watcher George Zimmerman in an incident whose exact factual details are still being tried in court Floridas Stand Your Ground law is facing extra scrutiny. The law provides that victims do not have a duty to retreat from aggressors, and may stand their ground in self-defense, even to use deadly force when they reasonably believe they need to in order to prevent murder or great bodily injury.
The bill passed both chambers of the Florida Legislature in 2005, unanimously so in the Senate, which minds the legislation had wide bipartisan support. But in the aftermath of Martins death, several Democrats have lashed out against the law, and Senate Minority Leader Chris Smith has proposed his own amendment to the present law, which would purportedly make it less easy for the perpetrator of homicide to elude police investigation after invoking a Stand Your Ground defense.
3) Circuit Court Judge Strikes Down Florida Pension Reform
On March 6, Judge Jackie Fulford of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court of Florida struck down a couple of provisions of the Florida Legislatures 2001 state employee pension reforms. The reforms required new state employees to contribute 3 percent of their gross income to their retirement, and did away with the annual cost of living adjustment.
Fulford struck down the reforms, as they pertain to those hired before July 1, 2011, on three grounds: a) the changes constituted an unlawful impairment of employees contracts with the state of Florida; b) the changes were effectively an exercise of eminent domain without due compensation to those employees who had their property (i.e., expected benefits) taken from them; and c) the Legislature violated state employees state constitutional right to collectively bargain over the terms and conditions of their employment.
Fulfords ruling has been appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which is expected to rule on the matter soon.
4) Floridians Vote to Retain Three Supreme Court Justices Accused of Being Left-Wing Activists
Sunshine State News was the only news source that examined the judicial record of Supreme Court Justices Barbara Pariente, R. Fred Lewis, and Peggy Quince. The three were accused by the Republican Party of Florida and conservative watchdog groups of being left-wing activists who imposed their own personal values on cases before them, instead of ruling according to the original public meaning of relevant law.
It was a colorful campaign that saw justices playing the victim card while conservative and libertarian activists and scholars debated the merits of the justices themselves and of Floridas system of appointing and retaining judges.
The justices, for their part, earned the endorsement and the contributions (to the tune of over $5 million) of the state legal establishment, state police and fire unions, former Republican state Sen. Alex Villalobos, former Democratic state representative and former president of the American Bar Association Sandy D'Alemberte, six former Supreme Court justices, several newspaper editorial boards, and the newly formed pro-retention organizations Democracy at Stake and Defend Justice from Politics.
Sunshine State News had reached out several times to the three justices to interview for our series examining their records. In September, we were notified by a representative of their joint campaign that they specifically refused to interview with the News, which is Floridas only center-right news source.
The justices will each turn 70 sometime in the course of their new six-year term, at which time they will be required to resign.
5) Court Rules New Florida Early Voting Law Doesn't Apply to Five Counties
On Aug. 16, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declined to approve new early voting laws as they applied to five Florida counties: Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough, and Monroe. The court said the new law, which reduces the early voting period, would have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote of minorities living in those counties.
The court did, however, suggest that one way Florida could adjust its early voting scheme without running afoul of the Voting Rights Act was to reduce the number of days polls are open while simultaneously keeping them open for more hours each day, thus maintaining exactly the same total number of hours for early voting as under the [pre-2011] law: 96 hours. The state subsequently received approval, by the U.S. Department of Justice, to do exactly that.
6) Court Strikes Down Florida Prison Privatization
Judge John Cooper of the 2nd Judicial Circuit Court of Florida struck down a Sept. 12 decision by the Joint Legislative Budget Commission to privatize prison health care in three regions of the state, insisting that the move required approval by the full Legislature. Privatization in a fourth region, approved by the Legislature in 2010, can go forward. The state is appealing the ruling.
BONUS:
On Dec. 13 the Florida Supreme Court unanimously struck down, as unconstitutional, a state statute that made it illegal for motorists to play music loud enough to be "plainly audible" to someone 25 feet away.
Perhaps not quite the landmark First Amendment ruling of the century, but one we thought would be of interest to our readers driving across the Sunshine State for holiday travel.
Reach Eric Giunta at egiunta@sunshinestatenews.com or at (954) 235-9116.
