When arrested on suspicion of committing a crime, everyone in the United States has the right to due process and to defend themselves in court. But in a cash bail system, when judges set bail amounts, those who cannot pay the full amount remain jailed indefinitely — a clear violation of their due process rights — while the rich can pay their way out of jail.
Guest Columns
As Supreme Court Takes on Florida Law Forcing Social Media’s Hand, Maybe It’s Time to Reinterpret the First Amendment
Florida is in the middle of an epic legal battle over concepts of free speech, press freedom and unimpeded commerce. It’s a clash between internet publishers, who want the government to leave them alone, and Republican leaders who insist that social media platforms are too powerful to be run by giant, faceless corporations that can — and do — impose their tastes on all of us.
DeSantis Thinks He’s Abolishing the Homeless by Banning Them from Sight. He’s Wrong.
DeSantis and lawmakers are likely reacting to a shift in the way communities across the U.S. view homelessness from compassion to penalties and restrictions. Unfortunately, but true to form, DeSantis didn’t offer a palette of humane solutions to the homelessness problem. Instead, he spoke of the issue in stark, unsympathetic, self-absorbed terms characterizing homelessness in purely negative terms, blaming them for contributing to the erosion of the quality of life of others lucky to not be sleeping on the street.
Andy Dance Responds: ‘School Resource Deputies Are Not Leaving School Campuses.’
In a detailed response to FlaglerLive reporting and an opinion piece on the county’s plan to “defund” its portion of school sheriff’s deputies, County Commission Chair Andy Dance refutes the claim as inflammatory and out of context, and lays out a history of county attempts going back to 2022 to initiate a conversation about school and county funding for school deputies, in hopes of realigning those responsibilities. If that proves unfeasible, Dance pledges, than the shared responsibility will continue.
The Rent Is Still Too High
Housing prices are spiraling alongside homelessness. Last year, homelessness hit an all-time national high of 653,100 people. To solve this crisis, we need to recognize housing as a human right.
The Controversial Concept of ‘Fetal Personhood’ Is Creeping Up on Florida
If fetuses have legal personhood, abortion-rights activists argue it would infringe the rights of pregnant women and have serious implications for medical procedures like in vitro fertilization and the treatment of ectopic pregnancies and miscarriages. For all practical matters, the Florida Constitution is silent on the issue of fetal personhood, despite Chief Justice Muniz’s suggestion that fetal personhood rights might already exist.
Trump Wants to Bring Kremlin Values to the White House
Trump is Putin’s lapdog; that’s been obvious since at least 2016, and his fealty now threatens NATO and the international order. Trump dares not defend our American values, much less question a political murder. There once was a time when Republicans stood steadfast against Russian abuse of human rights, but that abiding party principle has gone the way of the videocassette.
Sheriff Staly to County: ‘Defunding School Resources Deputies Is Fundamentally Wrong’
When the the County Commission first raised the possibility of ending its contribution to the Flagler County school district’s school resource deputy program a year ago, Sheriff Rick Staly wrote the commission chairman a four-page letter sharply criticizing the possibility and explaining why. Now that the County Commission is pushing that possibility further, Staly’s letter is relevant again, and presented here in full.
Sabotage of Biden’s Compromise Border Bill Proves It: GOP Wants Chaos, Not Solutions
Right-wing Republicans have squawked since forever that the only way to save this country from being overrun by non-white immigrants is to enact tough enforcement at the southern border. But now that they’ve finally gotten what they’ve always professed to want – a bipartisan Senate bill, with President Biden moving rightward in the spirit of compromise – Johnson and the rest of his MAGA misfits are decreeing that the whole package is DOA in the House.
This Hyper Talk of a Border ‘Invasion’ Is an Old American Playbook
With persecution, poverty, and climate change driving large numbers of migrants to the southern border, some in politics and the media are again pushing the panic button and purposely but inaccurately using words like “invasion” to describe problems at the border.