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14th Amendment

A Poisoned Tree Grows in St. Augustine

December 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 21 Comments

Vergilio Aguilar Mendez, in a still from body cam footage, on a sidewalk at the Super 8 motel where he was staying last May.

An 18-year-old migrant faces an aggravated manslaughter charge for the death by heart attack of the sheriff’s deputy who arrested him on a resisting charge, while the migrant was on a sidewalk eating dinner and speaking to his mother by phone at his motel in St. Augustine. The death of the deputy was a tragedy. The charge against the migrant compounds it with a miscarriage of justice in the making.

The Deeply Rooted Biases Biases Behind Transgender Athlete Bans

December 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

A California teacher takes part in a demonstration in September 2023 to support the rights of transgender people.

In 2023, 24 states had laws or regulations in place prohibiting transgender students from participating on public school athletic teams consistent with their gender identity. These bans mean that a person whose sex assigned at birth was male but who identifies as a girl or woman cannot play on a girls or women’s athletic team at a public school in that state. State-level politics and public biases against transgender people are largely to blame.

Florida Appeals Court Upholds Disenfranchising Black Voters in North Florida, a Victory for DeSantis

December 2, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

En blanc: the First District Court of Appeal. (First DCA)

A state appeals court has rejected a legal attempt to save a Black-opportunity congressional district in North Florida, relying on legal reasoning never raised by the parties to the case: That the district originally was devised to benefit Democrats, not Blacks specifically.

Proposed Florida Law Would Ban Local Governments and Contractors from Recognizing Preferred Pronouns

November 25, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 22 Comments

pronouns florida legislature

A legislative proposal to bar state and local governments and contractors or nonprofits drawing state money from recognizing employees’ preferred gender pronouns if they differ from their biological sex has drawn criticism from LGBTQ+ Democrats as “a disturbing escalation of right-wing extremism in Florida.”

Eight Florida Cities Get Perfect Scores in LGBTQ+ Equality Report

November 19, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

A decal on a Miami Beach sidewalk produced by Miami Beach Cares. (© FlaglerLive)

Despite enduring a year that advocates have derided as the “most anti-LGBTQ legislative session in history,” a nationwide report gives eight Florida cities perfect 100% scores when it comes to assessing LGBTQ+ equality in the areas of municipal policies, laws, and services. Getting maximum scores of 100 in Florida are: Tampa, Wilton Manors, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, Oakland Park, Orlando, and St. Petersburg.

Sheriff Chitwood’s Dangerous, Irresponsible Attacks on News-Journal’s Frank Fernandez

October 4, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 24 Comments

The News-Journal's Frank Fernandez, right, always on the lookout for cons. (© FlaglerLive)

Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood’s repeated, vilifying and unjustified attacks on News-Journal reporter Frank Fernandez irresponsibly and dangerously inflame his social media base at a time when reporters’ safety is nothing to take lightly–the more so when a law enforcement chief who should know better is stoking the flames. Volusia County media should respond in concert.

Judge Exonerates ‘Christian’ Teacher Who Refused to Refer to Trans Student by His Preferred Pronouns

October 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

trans pronouns

An administrative law judge Monday backed a Miami-Dade County teacher who reportedly told a transgender student that, “I’m a Christian, and my God made no mistakes” while refusing to call the student by preferred pronouns.

Florida’s Policing of Public Restroom Gender Draws Federal Lawsuit from Trans and Nonbinary Group

September 29, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 13 Comments

Such a sign, at Motorworks, the pub in Orlando, would no longer be allowed in publicly owned venues. (© FlaglerLive)

A group of transgender and nonbinary people on Friday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new Florida law requiring people to use public restrooms that align with their sex assigned at birth, asking a judge to block enforcement before an upcoming march in Orlando.

A Uncomfortable Supreme Court Hears Abortion-Ban Case, with Privacy Protections on the Ropes

September 8, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz participated in oral arguments over abortion rights in Florida on Sept. 8, 2023. Source: Screenshot/Florida Channel

Five of the seven justices are appointees of the anti-abortion Gov. Ron DeSantis. A sixth, Charles Canady, is married to the legislator who co-sponsored the six-week ban on abortion. He did not recuse himself. If the court upholds a 15-week abortion ban, it would also mean that a six-week ban–more recently passed by the Legislature–would take effect 30 days after the ruling.

‘Fairness and Diversity’ Training for Judges? Florida Supreme Court Rules It Unnecessary.

September 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | Leave a Comment

The Florida Supreme Court building. (

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday kept in place a decision to delete part of a rule that allowed judges to take courses in “fairness and diversity” to meet continuing-education requirements. In a 5-1 order, the court said it had considered comments and determined that “no further amendments to the rule are warranted at this time.”

With K-12 Health Standards Mum on Abortion, Younger Floridians Seek More Influence Ahead of Court Case

September 6, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

Abortion rights-activists with Occupy Tally gather on April 14, 2023 to protest a a recently signed six-week abortion ban. Credit: Danielle J. Brown

The Florida Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Sept. 8 on the abortion issues and could reverse the course the court set more than 30 years ago. Some young Floridians are turning to the future of reproductive freedom in Florida, as through Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that launched a pro-abortion initiative to add a constitutional referendum on reproductive freedom to the November 2024 ballot.

Judge Rules Unconstitutional DeSantis Plan That Eliminated Black Representation

September 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 16 Comments

gerrymandering congressional district fifth florida

Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh ruled that a congressional redistricting plan pushed through the Legislature by Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the Florida Constitution and needs to be redrawn. The judge sided with voting-rights groups in a lawsuit focused on a North Florida district that in the past elected Black Democrat Al Lawson but was dramatically revamped during the 2022 redistricting process. White Republicans won all North Florida congressional districts in the November elections.

Federal Judge Refuses to Block Florida Law Targeting Adult Transgender Care, But Individuals May Sue

September 2, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 2 Comments

trans youths marginalized

A federal judge on Friday refused to block a new Florida law making it more difficult for transgender adults to access hormone therapy and surgeries. But U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle said he could issue a narrowly tailored injunction to ensure care for individual plaintiffs if they provide detailed medical records.

White Supremacist Murders 3 Black People at Dollar General in Jacksonville, Before Shooting Himself

August 27, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 52 Comments

Sheriff Waters told the media that the man had authored manifestos that were provided to his parents, the media, and federal agents. The sheriff referenced the “disgusting ideology of hate” at the news conference.

Sheriff T.K. Waters said two males and one female — all Black — were killed in the shootings, and the shooter killed himself. He had been armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a handgun, with the rifle showing several swastikas. At the time of the news conference, the shooter’s name had not yet been identified, but Sheriff Waters said the man had authored manifestos that were provided to his parents, the media, and federal agents. The sheriff referenced the “disgusting ideology of hate.”

Flagler Schools Have a ‘Subgroup’ Problem. It’s Not Blacks. It’s Not Even Students.

August 25, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 37 Comments

flagler schools subgroup problem

It is now so routine to reduce individual students to cogs among subgroups enslaved to the expectations of standardized testing that our educators have lost sight of their purpose. The state’s transformation of education into a dehumanizing machinery is to blame. So is the Flagler County School Board’s emphasis on running the district as a business, and now branding its superintendent a “CEO.” The individuality and dignity of students is lost to a damaging bottom-line mentality.

Ohio’s Message to Florida: There’s Still Hope for Democracy

August 20, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

It only looks bleak: a street in Elyria, Ohio, where at least a few voters rejected their Legislature's attempt at an end-run around democracy. (© FlaglerLive)

Terrified that an amendment giving women — not Gilead Republicans — control over their reproductive health would pass in November, Ohio’s right-wingers figured they’d change the rules in the middle of the game. But on Aug. 8, voters in this allegedly red state rejected a Republican-backed measure to make it harder for citizens to amend their constitution.

Forced-Birth Reactionaries Fail to Rig the Game in Ohio

August 10, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

ohio vote abortion

In a red Ohio referendum this week, forced-birth reactionaries got blown out by a whopping margin of 430,000 votes. No word yet on whether Roe v. Wade killer Donald Trump has aspirationally asked Republican election officials to find 430,001 votes.

Unsupportive Families and Conversion Therapy Drive Trans Youth to Suicide

August 1, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

Trans teens living in a supportive family environment have a lower risk of attempting suicide or running away from home. (© FlaglerLive)

Supportive family environments and hormone replacement therapy that affirms a transgender child’s gender identity decrease their risk of suicide or running away from home, whereas unsupportive family environments and conversion therapy that denies their gender identity increase these risks.

The Republican Brand Returns to White Supremacy

July 23, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 73 Comments

A Klan rally in Tallahassee in 1977. (Robert Burke/Florida Memory)

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville is another example of how the Republican brand is no longer bigger business and smaller government. It’s white supremacy. Their platform? White supremacy. Their political and social goals? White supremacy.

Florida’s Magical Negro History Standards

July 21, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 49 Comments

"America," by Edward William Clay (1841), shows an idealized portrayal of American slavery and the conditions of blacks under this system in 1841

We now have the Magical Negro elevated to an entire curriculum. It’s Florida’s African American History standards. The standards are an excellent illustration of what American history looks like through white eyes, and how whites are the best thing that ever happened to Black people, who apparently should worship the Middle Passage down the chains of their ancestry. 

State Approves Florida’s New Version of Black History Standards as Teachers Blister Half-Truths and Errors

July 19, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 27 Comments

victims

Students at Florida public schools will now learn that Black people benefitted from slavery because it taught them skills. This change is part of the African American history standards the State Board of Education approved at a Wednesday meeting.

End Legacy Admissions

July 16, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

James Daughton, Kevin Bacon and Martha Smith in "Animal House" (Universal)

Who will benefit from the Supreme Court’s recent ruling striking down race as a factor in college admissions? Mostly, just wealthy white people. That’s because the ruling refused to touch so-called “legacy admissions.” Colleges are free to continue giving preferential treatment to the children of alumni, donors, and other well-connected, privileged people.

Privacy Right v. Abortion Ban at Heart of Florida Supreme Court Case Set for September

July 9, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 1 Comment

A familiar sight since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. (Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash)

The court issued an order scheduling a hearing in a challenge to a 2022 law that prevented abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The outcome of the case also will affect a law passed this year that would bar abortions after six weeks of pregnancy — and could determine whether a privacy clause in the Florida Constitution will protect abortion rights.

Families Flee Florida and Other States Thwarting Transgender Care

July 8, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 11 Comments

transgender care medical exile

Missouri, Florida, and Texas are among at least 20 states that have limited components of gender-affirming health care for trans youth. Those three states are also among the states that prevent Medicaid — the public health insurance for people with low incomes — from paying for key aspects of such care for patients of all ages.

Citing Florida’s ‘Latest Assault on the Right to Vote,’ Judge Blocks Parts of Election Law

July 5, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

One of Florida's two major parties doesn't like to make it easier for people to vote. (© FlaglerLive)

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker, in a 58-page decision, issued a preliminary injunction against parts of the law that would prevent non-U.S. citizens from “collecting or handling” voter-registration applications and make it a felony for voter-registration group workers to keep personal information of voters.

Shocking Disparities in Flagler’s Handling of 3 Different Assaults by Disabled Students Against School Staff

June 30, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 44 Comments

Brendan Depa in court earlier this month, when his competency to stand trial was in question. A judge cleared him for trial. (© FlaglerLive)

Violent assaults against school staff involving profoundly disabled students, never before reported in detail until today–and not caught on surveillance video–point to startling if not shocking disparities in how cases may be handled, compared to that of Brendan Depa at Matanzas High School, depending on the attention they garner.

Un-Achieving Brown v. Board of Education

June 29, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 47 Comments

affirmative action decision

It took 69 years, but today the U.S. Supreme Court took its revenge on Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case that cracked the door a smidge to desegregating schools. It did so in a vengeful, cynical decision re-inventing color-blindness in an America where only whites wear the blinders.

School Vouchers, Teaching Muzzles, Diversity Bans, Looser Guns: 200 New Laws Take Effect Saturday

June 26, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

florida new laws 2023

More than 200 laws passed during the 2023 legislative session, including a record $116.5 billion budget, will take effect Saturday, including a massive expansion of public money available for private schooling, permitless gun-carrying, and more restrictions or bans on what teachers may say or teach.

The American Way of Woke

June 11, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 15 Comments

statue of liberty

What is truly perverse today are those who actively seek to infringe upon the liberties of others while masquerading as defenders of liberty, argues Brad West. We are not perfect, and will always be a work in progress, even in wokeness. But we get better because of those who have been, and are, woke.

In Surprise Victory for Voting Rights, Supreme Court Rejects Redistricting Map Diluting Black Vote

June 8, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 5 Comments

voting rights supreme court

By a vote of 5-4, the justices issued a major voting rights decision, ruling that Alabama’s new congressional map likely violates the Voting Rights Act. Even more significantly, the court declined an invitation to adopt an interpretation of the act that would have made it much more difficult to challenge redistricting plans.

Take Pride

June 4, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 47 Comments

The Pride flag waving at a demonstration outside Flagler Palm Coast High School a little over a year ago. The flag is banned on Florida school campuses, though MIA flags, perpetrating a fabrication started by Richard Nixon, still fly. (© FlaglerLive)

This Pride Month, there’s not much to be proud of in people who to this day would rather burn than raise the Pride Flag. It’s about time it replaced all those MIA flags in school yards and at courthouses. LGBTQ victims, unlike the mythical missing, are real, and they’re piling up. 

Voters Approved an Amendment For Racial Equity in Districts. DeSantis Wants It Ignored.

May 30, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 19 Comments

desantis constitutional amendment

A lawsuit filed by voting-rights groups focuses a Jacksonville-area district that helped elect Black Democrat Al Lawson until a DeSantis plan redrew it and installed two white Republicans instead. Now DeSantis is asking a court to ignore a 2010 constitutional amendment requiring “Fair Districts.”

A Memorial Month for Our Rights

May 28, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 3 Comments

memorial day for american rights

Tuesday begins a month of memorial days as we watch our Supreme Court continue to roll back those very rights soldiers died for, trampling them more effectively than any enemy foreign or, for the most part, domestic, ever has.

A Trans Teen No Longer Feels Welcome in Florida. So She Left.

May 28, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 6 Comments

No room for tents of those colors in Florida. (© FlaglerLive)

Josie moved more than a thousand miles from St. Augustine — and her parents — to start a new life in Rhode Island to escape a state where Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP Legislature politicized and passed policies that de-legitimize and demonize trans people.

In Florida, We Are All Child Abusers Now

April 23, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 60 Comments

Illegal, even in the shadow of a courthouse. (© FlaglerLive)

The Florida Legislature is legalizing a Jim Crow-like system of punishing, demonizing and denying the existence of LGBTQ children. Few sessions of the Florida Legislature provided the legal framework for as much state-sponsored and citizen-empowered terrorism against children as this one.

Republicans Lost GenZ with Expulsion of Two Black Lawmakers

April 16, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 31 Comments

Rep. Justin Jones, left, and Justin Pearson, right, were expelled from the Tennessee House. (Photo: John Partipilo/Tennessee Lookout).

As have many shameful lawmakers before them, Tennessee Republicans weaponized the rules of conduct to punish state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson. But respectability politics mean nothing to GenZ. If such  glaring issues as gun violence, healthcare, and climate change were not enough to engage the youth, watching racism and inequality so blatantly on display certainly did the job.

Trans Bathroom-Ban Bills Affect Private Businesses, Schools, Public Shelters and Healthcare Facilities

April 15, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

Looks familiar? (© FlaglerLive)

The sharply restrictive bills making their way through the Florida Legislature don’t just attempt to control bathroom use by transgender people but represent a much more “broad and vague” ban on gender-inclusive restrooms and changing facilities in private businesses, health care facilities, schools, public shelters, and jails.

Florida Lawmakers Approve Abortion Ban Past 6 Weeks, One of the Most Restrictive in U.S.

April 13, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 17 Comments

Rep. Jenna Persons-Mulicka (left) and Rep. Jennifer Canady (right) discussing SB 300 on April 13, 2023. The two women were primary sponsors of the 6-week abortion ban. The House ultimately approved the legislation. Credit: Danielle J. Brown

In less than a year, Florida has moved from a 15-week abortion ban to the passage of one of the most restrictive bans in the nation — a 6-week abortion ban. The state House approved the legislation after at least six hours of questions, amendments, debate, protests and a final vote that will clear the way for Gov. Ron DeSantis to consider the bill.

Volusia GOP House Rep. Webster Barnaby Likens Trans People to ‘Mutants,’ ‘Demons and Imps’

April 10, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

Florida House Rep. Webster Barnaby, A Volusia County Republican, calls trans people "demons" and "imps," and compares them to "mutants living among us on planet Earth." during a meeting of the House Commerce Committee, April 10, 2023.

Florida House Rep. Webster Barnaby, A Volusia County Republican, called trans people “demons” and “imps,” and compares them to “mutants living among us on planet Earth” during a House Commerce Committee meeting on a bill that would ban transgenders’ use of bathrooms of their choice.

Anti-Trans ‘Bathroom Ban’ Is Quickly Moving Through Florida Legislature

April 7, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 20 Comments

trans bathroom ban

Florida could be next in line to criminalize transgender adults who intentionally enter a restroom or changing facility opposite their sex at birth, according to two bills hastily moving through the Legislature. Similar bathroom bans are advancing through legislatures around the country.

After Clearing Gallery of Public, Florida Senate Passes 6-Week Abortion Limit

April 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 12 Comments

The Florida Senate voting on SB 300 today. (© FlaglerLive via Florida Channel)

The bill touched off heavy debate Monday that was interrupted by Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, ordering the clearing of the Senate seating gallery because of repeated outbursts from audience members opposed to the bill.

Judge Perkins Denies Further Hearings and Claim of ‘Manifest Injustice’ in Gaskin Death Penalty Case

March 20, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 7 Comments

Circuit Judge Terence Perkins. (© FlaglerLive)

Circuit Judge Terence Perkins this morning in Bunnell denied the defense’s motion for an evidentiary hearing on  Tuesday, ending Gaskin’s last possible effort to prevent his killing. The state Supreme Court and a last-minute commutation by the governor are the only remaining possibilities, but they are beyond the remote.

Lawmakers Seek to Cut Florida’s Abortion Ban to 6 Weeks, from Current 15

March 8, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 15 Comments

abortion rights six week limit florida

Much of the bills would be contingent on the Supreme Court effectively upholding the 15-week law. The current limit has drawn criticism because it does not include exemptions for victims of rape or incest.

Florida Bill Would Require Bloggers to ‘Register’ With State and Turn Over Financial Accounts

March 3, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 23 Comments

bloggers required to register with the state

The bill, which has no chance of becoming law, would require bloggers who write about Gov. Ron DeSantis and other elected state officials to register with the government and provide monthly financial income reports. The National Review today called the bill’s GOP author a “moron.”

Teaching Heroic Musician Graham Jackson’s Story in Florida Could Now Be Illegal

March 1, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 18 Comments

Florida’s “anti-woke” legislation and the state’s recent rejection of the AP African American studies curriculum are well-known examples of a disturbing trend that attempts to criminalize exploring the stories of Black people such as Graham Jackson.

One Texas Judge Will Decide Fate of Abortion Pill Used by Millions of American Women

February 25, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 10 Comments

Federal District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a Donald Trump appointee, has shaped his decisions from his religious beliefs. (Wkimedia Commons)

By filing a lawsuit in Amarillo, the Alliance Defending Freedom was almost guaranteed to draw U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, a President Donald Trump appointee who worked as deputy general counsel at First Liberty Institute, a conservative nonprofit advocating for religious liberty, before being confirmed to the federal judiciary in 2019.

School Board’s Chong Demands ‘Safe Space’ Sign Be Removed Seconds After Decrying Violence at Matanzas

February 23, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 55 Comments

The sign above, ina classroom that used to be the gathering place for Matanzas High School's Gay-Straight Alliance, was glimpsed for less than two seconds in a sheriff's body cam video of the arrest of a Matanzas student ion Tuesday. The sign nevertheless caught the attention of School Board member Christy Chong, who demanded that it be taken down. (© FlaglerLive via sheriff's Axon video)

Flagler County School Board member Christy Chong had just decried a Matanzas High School student’s attack on a teacher aide there when, not a minute later, she demanded that a “safe space” poster associated with LGBTQ groups and anti-bullying be removed from a Matanzas classroom.

GOP Bills Disrupting Trans Youth Care Are Sweeping the Nation Beyond Florida

February 20, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 4 Comments

When even parental rights have no say in youth trans care. ( Mercedes Mehling on Unsplash)

Republican lawmakers in more than half the states are continuing a party-line push to restrict doctors and other medical providers from offering some gender-affirming health care to minors, even with parents’ consent.

Florida Health Boards Back Banning Treatment for Trans Youths

February 10, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 8 Comments

trans rights

The Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine on Friday refused to scrap new rules prohibiting doctors from using gender-affirming care for trans youths, after dozens of transgender men and women pleaded with them to reverse the treatment bans.

Dear Gov. DeSantis: Suppressing Black People Doesn’t Play Well Outside Fox Echo Box

February 5, 2023 | FlaglerLive | 68 Comments

Advocates and Black leaders in the Florida Legislature gathered at the Capitol on Jan. 25, 2023 to push back against the DeSantis administration’s rejection of an AP African American pilot history course. Issac Morgan

Governor, we all know that you’ve stopped even pretending you’re not racist. But pitching hissy fits about gay people, drag queens, and black history ain’t a good look if you want to appeal to anyone outside the Fox swamp. RuPaul has one of the most popular shows in the nation.

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