Senate President Mike Haridopolos called it quits this week in his quest to become Floridas next U.S. senator, kicking off a week that was otherwise dominated by the courts.
Handing down a series of opinions on myriad subjects from tobacco liability to tax breaks, Florida appellate courts this week were also inundated with a new round of lawsuits as groups angered over recent legislative actions brought their grievances to the courts in hopes of stopping prison privatization and a ballot measure aimed at allowing government money to go to religious organizations.
Meanwhile, a handful of failing schools got more time to improve their performance. And state utility regulators went toe-to-toe with federal environmental regulators over efforts to safeguard marine life from nuclear power plants that dot Floridas coast.
And a year after officials successfully capped the leaking well, Gulf Coast lawmakers introduced federal legislation to earmark future Clean Water Act penalties levied against BP for the coastal region that saw the brunt of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
And Floridas unemployment stayed at 10.6 percent in June, unchanged from May but 0.8 percentage points higher than a year ago.
COURTS PROVIDE STAGE FOR MUCH OF WEEKS DRAMA:
Courts provided much of the weeks drama by stepping into and out of a series of long-standing feuds involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Florida Supreme Court kept the door open for thousands of claims being sought by smokers of big tobacco companies over smoking-related illnesses and death. In a closely watched case, the states highest court chose not to hear an appeal by R.J. Reynolds of a $28.3 million award to the wife of a dead Panhandle smoker, one of several cases the cigarette maker is facing.
Pricey in its own right, the case has wider implications for the tobacco industry by stripping R.J. Reynolds and other tobacco companies of a key strategy for defending thousands of Florida lawsuits filed by sick smokers or their survivors. By choosing not to intervene, the Supreme Court let stand a lower court ruling upholding the way courts should interpret its 2006 opinion that established critical findings about the health dangers of smoking and misrepresentation by cigarette makers.
R.J. Reynolds challenged the way lower courts applied the 2006 decision, arguing the widow of Benny Martin was not forced to prove the company's liability. The cigarette maker had used the same strategy in defending other cases, such as a $15.75 million verdict in the death of an Alachua County smoker
"Today, the Florida Supreme Court said, 'No, we're done hearing this,''' said Matt Schultz, a Pensacola attorney who represents the widow, Mathilde Martin.
"We remain confident that the Martin decision directly violates Reynolds' constitutional rights by depriving us of our due process right to a fair and impartial trial,'' said David Howard, a company spokesman.
The Martin case, like others stemming from the 2006 Supreme Court decision, is known as an "Engle progeny" case. That is because of the name of a plaintiff in the 2006 decision, which was filed as a class action.
R.J. Reynolds plans to appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, residents of Pensacola Beach must pay property taxes like everyone else, the 1st District Court of Appeal affirmed Monday in a case that addresses an issue that has persisted on Santa Rosa Island since shortly after World War II.
In an opinion affirming a lower court ruling and setting the stage for possible Florida Supreme Court review, the 1st DCA ruled that Escambia County can collect property taxes from residents even though the residents don't own the land on which their residences sit.
Monday's ruling affects about 2,400 properties that have been assessed $39 million in property taxes since the case was brought forward in 2004. Of that, residents have paid $26 million in anticipation that the ruling might go Escambia's way
Finally, a federal judge in Gainesville has ordered Dixie County to remove a six-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments and directing viewers to Love God and Keep His Commandments, from the front of the countys courthouse in Cross City.
The Dixie County Commission gave the OK for the monument in 2006, and the ACLU of Florida sued, arguing the monument represented government speech, violating constitutional prohibition against government promotion of religion.
While the court decisions may have marked the end of the road for some legal challenges, other legal squabbles started their journeys in Tallahassee this week as a pair of lawsuits challenging laws passed in 2011 was filed.
A group of corrections officers and their union sued to block the state's effort to privatize 18 Florida prisons, saying the law allowing the privatization was illegally added to the state budget during the waning days of the 2011 session.
The lawsuit says lawmakers overstepped their bounds by including budget proviso language that requires the Department of Corrections to explore the private prison option, a controversial issue that has been simmering in Tallahassee for years.
Teachers also went to court. In a challenge to a proposed constitutional amendment, the Florida Education Association filed suit against a measure put on the ballot by lawmakers that would allow the state to funnel money to religious institutions.
Public school advocates are fearful that the proposed constitutional amendment was designed to promote a big expansion of private school vouchers. The lawsuit is being driven primarily by the FEA with help from public school groups such as the Florida School Boards Association. The proposed constitutional change, known as Amendment 7, would delete a line in the state Constitution that prohibits the state from using taxpayer dollars to "aid in any church, sect or religious denomination."
Amendment 7 would insert a line that says the government cannot deny an individual or group the "benefits of any program, funding or other support on the basis of religious identity or belief."
"Those of us who work to make public schools a priority understand that this is designed to open up the state treasury to voucher schools," said FEA president Andy Ford, who is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit.
The FEA is joined by eight other plaintiffs, who include six rabbis and ministers, and two public school advocates. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Anti-Defamation League are also helping fight the amendment.
HARI-DROP-OLOS STEPS OUT, DAWSON STEPS IN:
Senate President Mike Haridopolos stunned much of Florida's political establishment this week by dropping out of the U.S. Senate race despite having raised $3.5 million for his bid to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson.
Haridopolos also said he wouldn't seek any other office next year, squelching any thoughts that he might try to make a bid for a new I-4 corridor U.S. House seat that is expected to emerge in the redistricting that will be complete before next year's election.
Haridopolos said he couldnt be a good Senate president and a candidate.
"It became increasingly clear to me, and those around me, that the responsibilities I was managing on both fronts are in conflict, Haridopolos said.
Gov. Rick Scott, who was on vacation this week in Montana, said the announcement took him by surprise.
"Anytime a statewide race loses a principled conservative like Mike Haridopolos in a race of this importance, it is a sad day for our state," Scott said in a statement.
While the former Republican front-runner chose to step out of the limelight, a former Democratic senator was thrust into it. Mandy Dawson, already under investigation in a case involving alleged influence peddling and kickbacks, was arrested on federal tax charges.
Dawson has also been under investigation for corruption surrounding her dealings with Alan Mendelsohn, a Broward County eye doctor and political fundraiser who was sentenced in June to four years in prison. Mendelsohn said in open court last year that he funneled more than $80,000 to Dawson, at her insistence, to curry favor for legislation he was pushing.
FAILING SCHOOLS WANT MORE TIME:
Eight struggling Florida schools on Tuesday were given one more year to execute a turnaround strategy designed to boost student performance.
The last-minute approval, just a month before the school year begins, came with stern warnings from the State Board of Education that the schools must show dramatic improvement by the same time next year, or risk closing, becoming a charter or being turned over for a private company to run.
The threat of major changes to some of Florida's oldest schools, all of which sit in low-income areas in urban centers such as Miami and Jacksonville, prompted a public outcry and pleas to help save them.
Most of the schools impacted by Tuesday's decision are in Duval and Miami-Dade counties. The schools were placed on "intervene" status based in part on the "F" and "D" grades the schools had received for years. A school typically has two years to improve student performance, and if they fail to make improvements, they may face sanctions.
STORY OF THE WEEK: The Florida Supreme Court chooses not to intervene in an appeal by R.J. Reynolds in a tobacco liability lawsuit. The courts decision not to decide keeps the way clear for thousands of suits stemming from a class action lawsuit filed against the industry.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "Today, the Florida Supreme Court said, 'No, we're done hearing this,' said Matt Schultz, a Pensacola attorney who represents Mathilde Martin, a widow whose dead husband, a Lucky Strike smoker, was awarded $28.3 million from R.J. Reynolds.
