Republican state legislatures across the South, Florida included, are passing new congressional redistricting maps that systematically divide concentrated Black populations into multiple white-majority districts to neutralize minority voting power and limits political representation. It is a regression to Jim Crow-era electoral suppression.
14th Amendment
DUI Probationer Sent Back to Jail for Refusing to Profess Faith in God in Christian Treatment Program
A Flagler County judge returned 29-year-old Joshua King to jail for a probation violation after the 29-year-old Wiccan refused to profess Christian faith in God at Faith Farm Ministries as part of his court-ordered rehab therapy. He claimed the facility mandated religious conversion for program completion. The judge ruled that King failed to comply with the terms of the specific program he himself selected. He is to be resasigned to a different facility not of his choice.
Parents and Florida’s Teachers Union Sue State Over Universal Vouchers, Calling them Unconstitutional
Parents and the Florida Education Association argue in a 39-page filing in state trial court in Leon County that state dollars funding private school vouchers don’t conform to the Florida’s Constitution’s charge requiring “uniform, efficient, safe, secure, and high quality system of free public schools.”
Florida House Approves DeSantis’ Congressional Redistricting Map in 90 Minutes
The Florida House of Representatives on Wednesday morning passed the congressional redistricting map presented to them by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which could give Republicans up to four new congressional districts. DeSantis’s legal team argues that federal law overrides state Fair District Amendments regarding minority representation. Democrats allege illegal partisan gerrymandering designed to aid 2026 midterm goals. The Florida Supreme Court will likely decide the constitutionality of this race-neutral approach.
DeSantis Signs Bill Banning Local Governments from Implementing Diversity and Fairness Policies
Soon Florida cities and counties will be banned from funding or promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and enacting net zero policies that cut down on greenhouse gases. SB 1134 prohibits municipalities from funding or passing a resolution in support of programs deemed diverse or inclusive. It also bars cities and counties from having a DEI office or an inclusion officer and gives the governor the power to remove local officials who violate the law.
Birthright Citizenship Ruling Will Decide Whether America’s 250th Is Celebration or Curtains
A Supreme Court ruling against birthright citizenship is a dangerous stepping stone toward mass denaturalization and the erosion of individual sovereignty. That’s Trump’s endgame. Anything less than a decision demolishing the challenge would disgrace the sestercentennial anniversary we are about to celebrate.
Florida Rule Would Require Proof Of U.S. Citizenship for Admission to State Colleges
The Florida Department of Education proposed a rule barring undocumented immigrants from the state’s 28 colleges and giving schools discretion to reject students based on past misconduct. The move follows various legislative attempts to limit non-resident enrollment and mirrors recent laws targeting students, dissenters and migrants.
Florida Universities’ Collaboration with ICE Is Making Students Less Safe
At least 15 Florida public universities have signed agreements to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, authorizing campus police to perform certain federal immigration functions including questioning and arresting suspected undocumented students. Faculty members report an intensifying climate of anxiety and uncertainty across campuses and a damaged sense of belonging for international students while undermining the role of universities.
Florida Attorney General Threatens NFL Over Rule Giving Minorities a Chance
Attorney General James Uthmeier is warning that he won’t stop pushing the NFL to suspend the “Rooney Rule,” which requires teams to interview minorities before they make a hiring decision. He claims it’s a violation of Florida law.
Appeals Court Will Decide if Flagler Beach Shopping Center Can Legally Ban Coastal Family Church Services
Coastal Family Church is appealing a court injunction prohibiting services at its Flagler Beach shopping center location. The property management company cites private covenants banning public assembly to justify the restriction. The church argues the ban violates First Amendment rights and constitutes selective enforcement. The high-stakes legal battle pits foundational private property rights against constitutional religious protections.
Supreme Court Appears Likely to Side Against Trump on Birthright Citizenship
Every federal court that has considered a challenge to Donald Trump’s executive order that would end birthright citizenship has struck it down. After just over two hours of oral arguments on Wednesday, before an audience that included (at least for part of the morning) Trump himself, a majority of the Supreme Court seemed likely to do the same.
Parental Rights or Parental Property? The Looming Threat to Florida’s Minors
Florida is tightening control over youth autonomy through legislation requiring parental consent for essential medical care and state-mandated censorship of university curricula. By replacing sociology with sanitized history and restricting academic freedom, officials aim to shield students from diverse ideas. These efforts to blinker the next generation often backfire, as students naturally resist censorship and seek out forbidden knowledge.
Bill Requiring New Florida Voters to Prove U.S. Citizenship Advances
A bill to impose heightened requirements for first-time voters, including mandating presentation of documents such as a U.S. passport or birth certificate — received its first hearing in this year’s legislative session, and was approved by a party-line vote in the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on Wednesday. Critics warned the bill would backfire and block voter registrations of eligible U.S. citizens.
I’m an Ex-FBI Agent. Here’s How Federal Agents Are Undermining Law Enforcement Principles
The killing of Good and Pretti raises legal, tactical and policy questions regarding law enforcement practices by federal agents. These cases illustrate how some federal agents are engaging with the public in a way that undermines established principles of policing and constitutional law.
In Florida, Driver’s Tests Will be English-Only Starting Feb. 6
Driver’s license tests in Florida will be administered only in English starting Feb. 6, the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles announced Friday.
Filming ICE Is Legal. Here’s How to Minimize Risk.
The hard truth for anyone filming law enforcement today is that the same technologies that can hold the state accountable can also make ordinary people more visible to the state. Recording is often protected speech. But recording, and especially sharing, creates data that can be searched, linked, purchased and reused. Video can challenge power. It can also attract it.
Florida Senate Committee Advances Bills to Clarify Felon Voting Eligibility
A bill that would require the state of Florida to develop and maintain a centralized database to provide individuals with felony convictions the information to determine whether they are eligible to have their voting rights restored moved through its first committee stop on Monday.
Mourning for a Vanishing America
The United States is undergoing a self-inflicted social and economic trauma through aggressive mass deportations. By prioritizing performative violence and warrantless incursions over economic stability, the current administration mirrors historical failures like the 1924 Immigration Act whose agents are dismantling the nation’s community fabric in a futile pursuit of an unattainable, exclusionary utopia.
Footage and Documents Contradict DHS Accounts of Violent Immigration Crackdown Incidents
Growing discrepancies between official Department of Homeland Security accounts and video evidence have sparked a crisis of accountability regarding federal immigration enforcement. While DHS frequently cites self-defense in use-of-force incidents, court records and bystander footage often suggest otherwise. Despite a federal judge’s recent ruling that characterized official testimony as “not credible,” legal doctrines like qualified immunity and the limitations of the Federal Tort Claims Act continue to make holding individual agents responsible nearly impossible.
Florida Democrats Denounce Attorney General’s Memo Calling Anti-Discrimination Laws Racist
Florida House and Senate Democrats have condemned a legal memo from Attorney General James Uthmeier, which labels several state anti-discrimination laws as unconstitutional and racially discriminatory. Issued on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the memo declares Uthmeier will not defend laws providing minority preferences. Democratic lawmakers argue this move threatens decades of bipartisan progress in government contracting and representation, accusing the appointed Attorney General of using his office to dismantle diversity efforts for political gain.
Killing Renee Nicole Good and Stand Your Ground
Seen through Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, the killing of Renee Nicole Good by ICE agent Jonathan Ross in Minnesota highlights the dangerous subjectivity of moment-of-threat self-defense claims and the equally dangerous expansion of law enforcement immunity, which weakens reasonable use-of-force standards and immunizes lethal vigilantism.
Trump Ends Veterans’ Access to Abortion
The U.S. Department of Justice has instructed the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to stop providing any abortion care or abortion counseling, even in cases of rape or incest, reversing a 2022 policy meant to preserve access for members of the military no matter where they might be deployed.
Birthright Citizenship Is Hanging By a Phrase
The Supreme Court on Dec. 5, 2025, agreed to review the long-simmering controversy over birthright citizenship. It will likely hand down a ruling next summer. When the justices weigh the arguments, they will focus on the meaning of the first sentence of the 14th Amendment, known as the citizenship clause. Both sides agree that to be granted birthright citizenship under the Constitution, a child must be born inside U.S. borders and the parents must be “subject to the jurisdiction” of the United States. However, each side will give a very different interpretation of what the second requirement means.
DeSantis Makes Dubious Claims About Florida Being ‘Forced’ To Redistrict
Democrats and voting rights advocates this week voiced vehement opposition to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ call to redistrict Florida’s congressional map in a special session next year, calling it an “illegal” gerrymander in violation of the Florida Constitution. Not surprisingly, DeSantis disagrees.
For 4th Year, Florida Republicans Try to Ban Pride and Political Flags from Public Buildings
Florida Republicans are trying for the fourth year in a row to ban political flags atop government buildings, including Pride, MAGA, or Black Lives Matter banners.
The U.S. Citizenship Test Shouldn’t Be Like Trivia Night at Tortugas
The new citizenship test “for aspiring Americans” is out. It is supposedly longer and harder than its predecessor. In fact, it’s not a civics test. It’s certainly not a citizenship test. It’s the sort of questions Jay Scherr baritones between nachos at his weekly trivia night at Tortugas, and it is riddled with errors while projecting an unrecognizably chauvinist America.
‘Ed Boy,’ Target of Murderers in a Trial 9 Months Ago, Is Now a Defendant Facing Up to 30 Years Over a Shove
Edward Gerard Sampson, better known as Ed Boy, shoved a woman and was charged with aggravated battery, a charge that would normally result in a minor penalty, possibly some jail time or probation. But the woman was pregnant, and Sampson is a habitual offender who was released from prison in May. Those factors combined now mean that if the jury convicts him at his trial this week, Sampson could spend the next 30 years in prison for that shove.
Same-Sex Marriage Survives as Supreme Court Declines to Reconsider
The Supreme Court on Monday morning turned down a request from Kim Davis, a former county clerk in Kentucky, to reconsider its 2015 decision recognizing a constitutional right to same-sex marriage.
Thus Spoke Lazarustra
Reports of Democrats’ death, Samuel Clemens telegraphs in Innocents at Home (his Substack), have been greatly exaggerated. But let’s not turn Tuesday’s Democratic sweep into a greatly exaggerated victory just yet. This was Lexington, not Yorktown. And Zohran Mamdani has a distance to go yet for his Hattin: those Christian nationalists have a stranglehold on this unholied America.
More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by ICE and Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days
Americans have been dragged, tackled, beaten, tased and shot by immigration agents. They’ve had their necks kneeled on. They’ve been held outside in the rain while in their underwear. At least three citizens were pregnant when agents detained them. One of those women had already had the door of her home blown off while Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem watched. About two dozen Americans have said they were held for more than a day without being able to phone lawyers or loved ones.
When Florida Sends Goons to Intimidate Government Critics
Retired Florida resident James O’Gara sent a postcard to Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, saying simply, “You lack values.” Soon after the postcard, two guys in armored vests emblazoned “POLICE” showed up at the O’Gara home and asked if James O’Gara had mailed that little missive to Tallahassee. They didn’t identify themselves, but the O’Garas checked with Largo police and found out the men were from the Department of Financial Services’ investigations unit.
Florida Attorney General Leads 21 States Backing ‘Parental Rights’ Over Child’s Gender Privacy in Court Case
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier led 21 states in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court Monday supporting a Tallahassee mother who claimed her rights were violated when a local middle school created a secret plan supporting her child switching genders.
The Supreme Court Resumes Its Rightward Reel
This year’s controversies at the Supreme Court focus on three dominant themes. One is the continuing constitutional revolution in how the justices read our basic law. The court has shifted from a living reading of the Constitution, which says the Constitution should adapt to the American people’s evolving values and the needs of contemporary society, to an original reading, which aims to enforce the constitutional principles understood by the Americans who ratified them.
Do ‘Conversion Therapy’ Bans Violate Free Speech?
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Tuesday in a challenge to Colorado’s ban on “conversion therapy” – treatment intended to change a client’s sexual orientation or gender identity – for young people. Kaley Chiles, a therapist in Colorado Springs and a practicing Christian, argues that the ban violates her right to free speech because it imposes “a gag order on counselors.” Colorado counters that the ban merely regulates the treatments that mental health professionals can provide because conversion therapy has been found to be “unsafe and ineffective.”
US Passport Is Best Defense Against ICE False Arrest as Supreme Court Approves Profiling in Mass Detentions
The aggressive drive to carry out mass deportations of people without legal status already has led to U.S. citizens being swept up in raids and detained, according to news reports from around the country as well as immigration experts. Such detainments now will increase, experts predict. Once in detention, it can take time to verify citizenship. A passport is considered the gold standard for proof that an individual is a citizen, but fewer than half of Americans hold passports, according to the State Department’s most recent data from 2024. Even fewer are likely to carry the bulky document around.
It Is Happening Here
Where would America be without hyperbole? From the chutzpah of the City Upon a Hill speech aboard the Arbella to the skirmish-turned Boston “massacre” to American Carnage a few years ago to the ongoing beatification of Charlie Kirk, it’s fair to say that without hyperbole, America would be more like a sprawly humble Saskatchewan than the Galactic Empire it’s become. But America’s slouch toward fascism is no hyperbole. Sinclair Lewis once mused that it can happen here. Today, it is happening here.
Appeals Court Ruling Against Transgender Deputy May Buttress Florida’s Restrictions on Pronouns Use
Florida’s defense of a 2023 law restricting pronouns that transgender teachers can use to identify themselves could be aided by an appeals-court ruling Tuesday in a Georgia case. A transgender Houston County, Ga., sheriff’s deputy filed that lawsuit after she was denied coverage under a county health-insurance policy for surgery related to gender dysphoria. The sharply divided appeals court ruled against the Georgia deputy, Anna Lange. Judge Nancy Abudu, in a dissenting opinion, pointed to potentially far-reaching effects of the majority ruling, calling it discrimination against transgender people.”
“The majority opinion effectively sanctions employment discrimination against transgender people,” Abudu’s dissent said.
Bail Grift: Instead of Returning Bond Money, Florida Seizes It to Pay Off Fines and Fees
Is Florida running a bail grift? That’s how one Judge described the state’s decades-old policy of keeping bail money from third parties and using it to pay off defendants’ outstanding fines and fees. At least one member of an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel that considered the issue this month appears to agree with that assessment. So do several current and former lawmakers who have tried to end the practice.
Judge Rules Illegal a Florida Law Banning Trans Teachers’ Choice of Pronouns
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker sided with Hillsborough County teacher Katie Wood and a Lee County teacher, identified as Jane Doe, in finding that the state law discriminates in violation of what is known as Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That section bars employment discrimination because of a person’s “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.” But the outcome of the issue might ultimately hinge on an appeals-court ruling in a Georgia case.
Slew of Groups Are Filing Appeals of Florida’s New Law Restricting Ballot Initiatives
The League of Women Voters of Florida, the League of United Latin American Citizens and two individual plaintiffs filed a notice Friday that was a first step in appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Florida Decides Healthcare and FloridaRighttoCleanWater.org political committees, which are trying to put proposals on the 2026 ballot, and individual plaintiffs filed similar notices July 25.
On Flagler County School Board, Competing Views Underscore District Tensions Behind Vouchers and ‘Choice’
At the end of a 15-minute hearing on Tuesday to approve Flagler County schools’ tentative property tax and budget for the coming fiscal year–a budget that includes the siphoning of $17 million to subsidize private school “vouchers” for almost 2,000 students, with the district’s dollars–School Board member Janie Ruddy delivered a brief speech decrying the erosion of public dollars for public schools, and addressing its consequences. Will Furry followed with a rejoinder, illustrating district tensions at the heart of the voucher and “choice” program. Both statements follow in full.
Federal Judge Wants To Know ‘Who’s Running the Show’ at ‘Alligator Alcatraz’
A U.S. district judge on Monday pushed state and federal officials to provide a copy of an intergovernmental agreement showing “who’s running the show” at an Everglades immigrant-detention center, calling the situation “urgent” as at least 100 detainees have been deported amid legal wrangling over the remote facility.
ICE Arrests in Florida of Migrants Without Criminal Records Surged 450% in June
Since the start of the second Trump administration, ICE has carried out more than 10,818 arrests in Florida, up from 3,496 in the same period last year. But in June, the largest share of arrests, 36%, were of people the federal government labeled as having no criminal history in the country, a 457% increase from June 2024.
Stop the Grift: Florida’s School Vouchers Are Scamming Taxpayers and Sabotaging Democracy
Our public schools are America’s great equalizer, the engine room of our democracy, where kids of different incomes, races, abilities, and beliefs learn side by side. That’s not “just education.” That’s democracy in motion, argues Colleen Conklin, the former School Board member. And that’s precisely why the current voucher experiment—built on selective enrollment, hidden finances, and zero public oversight—is the opposite: it fractures the common schoolhouse, privatizes accountability, and poses a real threat to the democratic fabric that public education holds together.
America(n) Unbecoming
If the president can threaten citizenship revocation even for U.S.-born citizens, as he did this week, and just for holding opinions he doesn’t like, the rest of us certainly aren’t safe. For migrants, every night–every day–is Kristallnacht as ICE carries out its pogroms. A majority of Americans are either applauding or indifferent, while protesters are branded enemies and invaders to be crushed by militarized goonery. This is not the America any of us have known, or should tolerate.
New Schools Commissioner Threatens Superintendents About Violating ‘Parental Rights’
Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas delivered his first speech to the State Board of Education Wednesday, quoting the Book of Psalms, promising to work closely with Florida’s top law enforcement officer to ensure students aren’t being “indoctrinated,” and threatening superintendents about violating parental rights.
Making Ignorance Great Again
Most Americans once celebrated our heterogeneity, our pluralism, and our tendency to expand freedoms. We valued knowledge and tried to foster understanding; we welcomed the new. Not so much these days, not here in Florida. This state now has statutes forbidding teaching the truth about slavery and Jim Crow, threatening educators who discuss gender, sexuality, systemic racism, and other disfavored topics. Universities are scrubbing their websites of words like “women,” “Black,” “colonialism,” and “diversity” — even if it’s “biodiversity” — anything seen as threatening to white, male Christian hegemony.
U.S. Supreme Court Deals Blow to Florida’s Enforcement of Anti-Immigration Law in Rebuff to Uthmeier
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a request by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier that would have at least temporarily allowed enforcement of a new state law targeting undocumented immigrants who enter the state. Uthmeier last month asked the Supreme Court for a stay of a temporary injunction that U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams issued in April to block the law. Such a stay, if granted, would have allowed enforcement of the law while an underlying legal battle about the injunction played out. The Supreme Court denied the stay request.
DeSantis Vetoes Target Black History and Minority Scholarships
As the Governor continues to decry diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the private and public sector, the Republican Governor killed several line items in the state budget directed at elevating the marginalized.
Federal Appeals Court Endorses Florida Ban on Teachers’ Preferred Pronouns in Public Schools
A federal appeals court has ruled against a Florida teacher who challenged a state law forbidding transgender teachers from using their preferred pronouns during their official duties in the classroom. The case involves Katie Wood, a math teacher in Hillsborough County who is transgender. She sued the state after a 2023 law passed saying that employees of public schools may not identify to their students with pronouns not consistent with their birth sex, “an immutable biological trait.”