A federal appeals court Friday kept on hold a new Florida law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter the state, rejecting arguments by Attorney General James Uthmeier that enforcement should at least temporarily be allowed.
Rights & Liberties
Moral Collapse: Florida Thinks Letting Prisoners Live in 100-Degree Heat with No Air Flow Isn’t Cruel Enough
The Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. You’d think that would settle the question of whether a person should be left to endure 100-degree heat in a locked dormitory with no air conditioning, no airflow, and no escape. But in Florida, the state argues that this kind of heat doesn’t rise to the level of cruelty. It’s just part of the sentence.
DCF Threatens Reporter Investigating Hope Florida Scandal with Cease and Desist
The Department of Children and Families (DCF) has sent a cease and desist letter to an Orlando Sentinel reporter who has been digging into the Hope Florida scandal. Jeffrey Schweers, the Sentinel’s Tallahassee bureau reporter, has broken some scoops regarding the embattled charity backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis.
Without Prior Discussion, Palm Coast Council Approves $300,000 Plan Integrating City Surveillance with Sheriff’s Crime Center
The Palm Coast City Council approved the first phase of a five-year, $304,000 plan to integrate all city surveillance cameras–on streets, on and inside buildings, at utility and other facilities–with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Real Time Crime Center. Integration will significantly expand the center’s capabilities and give the Sheriff’s Office immediate and unimpeded access to the camera streams, though the city will retain control of the network, the software, and the implementation of the system.
Young Americans’ Support for Free Speech Has Cratered
For much of the 20th century, young Americans were seen as free speech’s fiercest defenders. But now, young Americans are growing more skeptical of free speech. In 2021, 71% of young Americans said people should be allowed to insult the U.S. flag, which is a key indicator of support for free speech, no matter how distasteful. By 2024, that number had fallen to just 43% – a 28-point drop. Support for pro‑LGBTQ+ speech declined by 20 percentage points, and tolerance for speech that offends religious beliefs fell by 14 points.
Florida Law Restricting Ballot Initiatives Survives Court Challenge
A federal judge Wednesday refused to block parts of a new Florida law that placed additional restrictions on the state’s ballot-initiative process, turning down arguments by groups seeking to take issues to voters in 2026. As an example of the controversial parts of the law, it would shorten from 30 to 10 days the length of time to submit signed petitions to supervisors of elections. The judge agreed that the law makes it harder to get proposed amendments on the ballot, but disagreed tha it has severely burdened voters’ speech.
American Doctors Are Escaping to Canada. Guess Why.
The Medical Council of Canada said in an email statement that the number of American doctors creating accounts on physiciansapply.ca, which is “typically the first step” to being licensed in Canada, has increased more than 750% over the past seven months compared with the same time period last year — from 71 applicants to 615. Separately, medical licensing organizations in Canada’s most populous provinces reported a rise in Americans either applying for or receiving Canadian licenses, with at least some doctors disclosing they were moving specifically because of the new regime in the United States.
ICE Arrests More Than 100 in Raid of Construction Site Near FSU
Workers building an apartment complex near the Florida State University campus were detained and some 100 were arrested Thursday morning by agents from U.S. Homeland Security, U.S. Marshals Service, and Florida Highway Patrol. After entering a construction site in Tallahassee, federal and state officials asked workers for identification and separated them into two categories.
DeSantis Vetoes Bill That Would Have Made Suing for Medical Malpractice Easier
Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday vetoed a bill aimed at clearing the way for some people to pursue medical-malpractice lawsuits over the deaths of family members.
Judge Allows Florida Republican Party to Defend Law Restricting Citizens’ Ballot Measures
A federal judge Wednesday approved a request by the Republican Party of Florida to help defend a new law that places additional restrictions on the state’s ballot-initiative process. The law is one in a series of steps that Republican leaders have taken to make it harder to pass constitutional amendments — and came after fierce fights in 2024 about ballot proposals on recreational marijuana and abortion. Supporters of the law’s restrictions have contended that they are needed to prevent fraud, particularly in the petition-gathering process for initiatives.
Randy Fine Calls 1 Million Gazans Incestuous ‘Idiots’ as He Slightly Walks Back ‘Nuke’ Comment
U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, whose district includes all of Flagler County, attacked people who accused him of wanting to “nuke” Gaza as idiots and said those are probably from Gaza, where he claimed half the population is incestuously married and therefore prone to being idiots. He also accused Tucker Carlson–who suggested that Fine should seek help–of taking “Muslim terrorist money” and of being bought off by Qatar.
At Flagler Tiger Bay, Ex-US Attorney General Gives Bullish View of ‘Unitary’ Executive Power, With Nod to Calvin Coolidge
Jesse Panuccio is the former executive director of the Florida Department of Executive Opportunity, general counsel to former Gov. Rick Scott and twice the acting U.S. Attorney General during the first Trump administration. He focused on the record spate of recent presidential executive orders and “their legal status,” drawing from headlines about the most aggressive use of executive power since the Civil War in combination with Panuccio’s interpretation of history in the founding era to endorse the current president’s conduct as legally justified.
Democracy’s Sunset: There’s a 70% Chance the Constitution Will Be Suspended Before 2028
The democratic moment is over. There’s a 70 percent chance that the Constitution will be suspended before the legal end of the current administration. The chance of a suspension grows to 110 percent in case of an actual emergency, like a 9/11-style attack. But a majority of Americans aren’t interested in democracy anymore. They want their strongman. Nothing else explains the country’s surrender to the degradation of the country’s institutions since Jan. 20.
Why the Far Right Fabricated the Myth of a Migrant ‘Invasion’
The current administration is using the claim that immigrants have “invaded” the country to justify possibly suspending habeas corpus, part of the constitutional right to due process. A faction of the far right has been building this case for years. By 2022, invasion rhetoric, which had previously been relegated to white nationalist circles, had become such a staple of Republican campaign ads that most of the public agreed an invasion of the U.S. via the southern border was underway.
The Supreme Court Hands a Temporary Defeat to Religious Charter Schools
Critics of funding religious charter schools warned a faith-based charter would be an unconstitutional breach of the “establishment clause,” which forbids the government from establishing an official religion or promoting particular faiths over others. In an anticlimatic outcome, the Supreme Court issued a brief order in a 4-4 outcome that leaves a lower court judgment in place that prevented St. Isidore’s from opening – but did not explain why.
Pasco Sheriff Ordered to Pay Legal Fees After Suppressing Public Records
A three-judge panel of the 2nd District Court of Appeal sided with the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Florida, which filed a lawsuit in September 2022 seeking to force the sheriff’s office to provide records related to what was known as the “Intelligence Led Policing” program. The program included analyzing various types of information and compiling lists of “problem people” and “at-risk youths” who would get increased law-enforcement attention, according to Wednesday’s ruling.
Maga’s Fearful War on Universities
Ron DeSantis has been trying for years to regulate speech in colleges and universities, impose restrictions on what teachers can teach in schools, and decree which books the state of Florida finds “acceptable.” DeSantis, nothing if not energetic in his rage, is now determined to shield our precious college students from Dangerous Thoughts. He’s the model for someone else in charge.
NRA, Raging That 18 Year Olds Can’t Buy Rifles in Florida, Appeals to US Supreme Court
Calling split appellate-court decisions “intolerable,” the National Rifle Association on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a challenge to a Florida law that raised the minimum age to purchase rifles and other long guns from 18 to 21. Friday’s move was the latest in seven years of legal wrangling over the law passed after a February 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students and faculty members.
Florida University System Leaders Plead with Court To Restore Discriminatory Restrictions on Chinese Students
Saying Florida is trying to protect against “nefarious foreign-government influence,” higher-education leaders this week asked a federal appeals court to overturn a ruling that blocked part of a 2023 law restricting ties between state universities and colleges and China. The March 28 injunction ruling focused on the students, who are from China and say the law has prevented them from working as graduate teaching assistants, positions that carry stipends and other benefits.
Consequences of Repealing Section 230, the ‘Law That Built the Internet’
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996 as part of the Telecommunications Act, has become a political lightning rod in recent years. The law shields online platforms from liability for user-generated content while allowing moderation in good faith. Lawmakers including Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., now seek to sunset Section 230 by 2027 in order to spur a renegotiation of its provisions.
Children May Attend Drag Shows, Court Rules, Striking Down Florida Law
Describing the law as “substantially overbroad,” a federal appeals court Tuesday upheld a preliminary injunction blocking a 2023 Florida law aimed at preventing children from attending drag shows. The 2-1 majority opinion said that “by providing only vague guidance as to which performances it prohibits, the act (the law) wields a shotgun when the First Amendment allows a scalpel at most.” The decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals backed the Central Florida venue Hamburger Mary’s in a First Amendment challenge to the law.
DeSantis Stands By Attorney General’s Defiance of Federal Court Order Halting Cops’ Arrests of Migrants
Gov. Ron DeSantis is standing by Attorney General James Uthmeier’s open defiance of a federal court order requiring law enforcement agencies in Florida to halt immigration arrests under a new state immigration law. Talking with reporters in Tampa, the governor said the episode raises a “larger issue” of who can enact public policy in the United States.
If Approved, Religious Charter Schools Will Shift Yet More Money from Traditional Public Schools
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on April 30, 2025, in what could be the most consequential case for public education since the court started requiring schools to desegregate in the years following Brown v. Board of Education. If the court allows churches to operate religious charter schools, the public education system, as Americans know it, will take on an entirely new face and set of financial challenges.
How Trans People Affirmed Their Gender in Medieval Europe
Restrictions on medical care for transgender youth assume that without the ability to medically transition, trans people will vanish. History, however, shows that withholding health care does not make transgender people go away. Scholarship of medieval literature and historical records reveals how transgender people transitioned even without a robust medical system – instead, they changed their clothes, name and social position.
3-Judge Panel of Fifth District Court of Appeal Hears Arguments at Flagler County Courthouse for 1st Time
For the first time in recent memory, and perhaps ever, a panel of the Fifth District Court of Appeal held oral arguments at the Flagler County courthouse this morning, hearing three cases, none local. One of the three cases centered on the meaning of theft, and whether a defendant had in fact committed a crime–grand theft–when she diverted business from her employer, even though she did not steal products.
Religious Charter Schools’ Fate May Hinge on Justice Roberts
The Supreme Court on Wednesday was divided over a Catholic virtual charter school’s bid to become the country’s first religious charter school. With Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused from the case, the outcome appeared to hinge on the vote of Chief Justice John Roberts, who asked probing questions of both sides but did not make his position clear.
Randy Fine’s Bill Banning Pride Flags at Public Buildings Fails, as Does Preferred-Pronoun Ban
LGBTQ advocates are celebrating several bills — including one that could have banned Pride flags flown at government buildings — stalling out this Session. Some of the dead bills including HB 75/SB 100 that would have banned government buildings, schools and universities, from flying flags that represented a “political viewpoint.” The proposal was sponsored by outgoing state Sen. Randy Fine before he left for Washington, D.C.
A Gutted Education Department Is Rolling Back Civil Rights and Targeting Transgender Students
The Education Department is being radically reshaped away from education, fairness and equity toward a more prosecutorial arm of the federal government as it negates civil rights investigations and ramps up investigations targeting transgender students and schools that apply more event-handed treatment of students and athletes. Civil rights offices are closed. Workers are fired. Investigating discrimination in schools is practically “impossible.”
Florida Lawmakers Raise New Barriers to Citizens’ Ballot Initiatives
With Democrats calling the changes an “assault on the very spirit of Florida’s democracy,” the Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday finalized a plan that will impose additional hurdles on the ballot-initiative process and heighten penalties for wrongdoing. Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed lawmakers to crack down on the process after highly contentious and expensive battles over proposals last year that sought to place abortion rights in the state Constitution and allow recreational marijuana for adults.
Jeffrey Hutchinson Killed for the 1998 Murders of His Girlfriend’s Three Children
After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeals, Jeffrey Hutchinson was executed Thursday night at Florida State Prison for the 1998 murders of his girlfriend’s three children in Okaloosa County, according to the state Department of Corrections.
How Probation Fuels Mass Incarceration
On any given day, 1.9 million people are incarcerated in more than 6,000 federal, state and local facilities. Another 3.7 million remain under what scholars call “correctional control” through probation or parole supervision. That means one out of every 60 Americans is entangled in the system — one of the highest rates globally. Yet despite its vast reach, the criminal justice system often fails at its most basic goal: preventing people from being rearrested, reconvicted or reincarcerated.
Attorney General Flouts Federal Judge’s Order Suspending Florida Immigration Law, and May Face Sanctions
Attorney General James Uthmeier could face contempt sanctions over a letter he sent to Florida law enforcement agencies labeling as illegitimate a court order suspending a state immigration law that led to the arrest of a U.S. citizen. In an order issued late Tuesday night, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams wrote that Uthmeier will have to prove that he shouldn’t face legal consequences over his greenlighting of arrests under the law, which she had temporarily blocked as likely unconstitutional.
Florida Will Use Tax Dollars to Sue Its Own Public Schools on Behalf of Parents
Attorney General James Uthmeier said his office is “putting our money where our mouth is” in announcing a state-funded legal team dedicated to enforcing parents-rights laws. Addressing a crowd of fourth graders at Jacksonville Classical Academy Tuesday, Uthmeier said his office is “making sure that we’re walking the walk and setting examples” in enforcing laws related to gender transition, library materials, school surveys, and other topics that have dominated legislative, judicial, and executive conversations in recent years.
Florida House Votes to Scrap Work Limits for Older Teens But Ban STI Treatment Without Parental Consent
Although older teens could work unlimited hours, they wouldn’t be able to get treatment for sexually transmitted infections on their own under two bills the Florida House approved Friday. House lawmakers voted on party lines both to require parental consent for health care providers to treat minors with STIs and to let 16- and 17-year-olds work full-time hours during the school year without their parents’ permission.
Brendan Depa Appeal: Court Abused Its Discretion By Imposing State Prison Instead of Juvenile Sanctions
The long-expected appeal in the case of Brendan Depa argues that Circuit Judge Terence Perkins abused the court’s discretion last summer when he imposed a five-year, adult prison sentence and 15 years of probation rather than what would have amounted to two years in a juvenile prison. Depa, who will be 20 in August, was a 17-year-old Matanzas High School special education student when he attacked then-teacher aide Joan Naydich after he got angry for being disciplined over the use of a Nintendo game. Surveillance video of the attack circulated around the globe, turbocharging the case’s visibility.
No Plea Offers in Jermaine Williams’s Death-Penalty Trial for Murder of His Wife, Yolonda Williams, in Bunnell
The death penalty case against Jermaine Williams, the 52-year-old Bunnell resident accused of stabbing his 50-year-old wife Yolonda Williams in the couple’s South Pine Street driveway last August, will not be tried until fall or perhaps next year, Assistant State Attorney Jason Lewis told the court today. The defense told the court that numerous depositions have been conducted, and numerous depositions still remain. The prosecution and the defense have not discussed a plea. That remains a possibility, though anything less than life in prison is unlikely.
How ‘Doge’ Is Eliminating Government Accountability
Mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services are continuing as the agency makes good on its intention, announced on March 27, 2025, to shrink its workforce by 20,000 people. Among workers dismissed in early April were several teams responsible for fulfilling requests for access to previously unreleased government data, information and records under a federal law known as the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA.
U.S. Supreme Court Will Hear Arguments on Ending Birthright Citizenship
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Thursday it will hear oral arguments next month over President Donald Trump’s efforts to restructure birthright citizenship, though the justices won’t decide on the merits of the case just yet.
Florida to Immigrants: Get Lost
DeSantis has savaged lawmakers for not doing enough to support President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to detain and deport as many as 20 million undocumented immigrants. He has worked assiduously to engineer Florida’s reactionary version of “how many ways can we screw over immigrants?”
Natalia Aleksiun Delivers Holocaust Lecture on Hidden Survivors of Nazi Occupation at Stetson
Historian and Holocaust Studies scholar Natalia Aleksiun delivers the Stetson University 2025 Holocaust Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, April 22, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the Stetson Room, located inside the Carlton Student Union building on Stetson’s DeLand campus.
Flagler County Library Director Braces for Possible Cuts After Trump Order to End Library Support Agency
Assistant Flagler County Administrator Holly Albanese is preparing the county’s public library system, its Board of Trustees and local officials for possible local consequences of an executive order that seeks to end the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, a mainstay of library and museum funding across the country. Cuts may be as little as $20,000, which the library system can easily absorb, or could be much larger if grants already awarded are called back.
Florida Bill to Prevent Anonymous Complaints Against Cops Divides Law Enforcement
A bill that would withdraw citizens’ ability to lodge anonymous complaints against law enforcement officers sparked sharp disagreement between department leaders and rank-and-file officers. The bill (HB 317), sponsored by Miami-Dade Republican Tom Fabricio, is supported by groups representing law enforcement officers, such as the Fraternal Order of Police. Two of the most powerful lobbyist organizations in Tallahassee — the Florida Sheriffs Association and the Florida Police Chiefs Association — are firmly opposed.
American Rendition: Rümeysa Öztürk’s Journey From Ph.D. Scholar to Trump Target Languishing in Louisiana Cell
30-year-old Turkish national Rümeysa Öztürk is a former Fulbright scholar in a doctoral program at Tufts University. Here’s how, though charged with no crime, she ended up in a crowded cell in Louisiana, part of a sprawling, opaque apparatus designed to deport the maximum number of people with minimum accountability. Her lawyers describe it as the story of a Trump-era rendition, a callback to the post-9/11 practice of grabbing Muslim individuals off the street and taking them to locations known for harsh conditions and shoddy oversight.
Why Is the President Undermining Libraries and Museums?
A few weeks ago, President Trump issued an executive order calling for the elimination of the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), adding to a growing list of illegal efforts to bypass Congress and abolish entire government agencies. All staff at the agency were placed on administrative leave on March 31. IMLS is an independent federal agency that provides crucial financial support to America’s 125,000 public, school, academic, and special libraries and museums nationwide.
Michael Tanzi, 48, Is Killed by Lethal Injection for Murder of Janet Acosta, 49, in 2000
Michael Tanzi was put to death by lethal injection Tuesday evening at Florida State Prison, almost 25 years after he kidnapped a woman on her lunch break in Miami and murdered her in Monroe County.
U.S. Rep. Wilson Seeks to Visit Miami Immigrant Detention Center Amid Reports of Mistreatment
Democratic U.S. Rep. Frederica Wilson wants to examine conditions at a Miami immigrant detention center, saying she’s concerned about reports of people sleeping on concrete floors. Wilson, who represents part of Miami-Dade County, sent a letter Monday to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem requesting her help in arranging a congressional visit this month to the Krome North Service Processing Center.
Federal Judge Halts Florida’s New Law Targeting Migrants, Citing Overreach
Miami-based Judge Kathleen Williams issued a 14-page decision granting a request for a temporary restraining order against the law, which the Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis approved in February. The law created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida.
In Flagler, Voters Cast Half a Million Ballots in 8 years; 5 Were Non-Citizens. Where’s the ‘Fraud’?
An executive order requires that all votes be counted by the end of Election Day. It also requires proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections. The order relies on a lie: that fraud is corrupting American elections. Let’s not look far and take Flagler County’s recent elections to test the claim.
Judge Orders Return of Maryland Man Wrongly Deported to El Salvador Prison
A federal judge in Maryland Friday ordered the Trump administration to return a national from El Salvador by April 7 who was erroneously deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador, despite an order blocking such removal. Vice President J.D. Vance wrote on social media, without evidence, that Abrego Garcia was a convicted member of the MS-13 gang and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt this week echoed Vance.
Florida House Approves Draconian Restrictions on Citizen-Led Constitutional Amendments
The Republican controlled Florida House of Representatives has passed a measure that will make it prohibitively harder for a citizen-led constitutional amendment to get on the ballot. The vote was 76-31. Its passage comes just five months after two constitutional amendments that would have respectively enshrined abortion rights and legalized recreational cannabis for adults narrowly fell short of passage.