The rule, which was scheduled to take effect Friday, is designed to help carry out a federal law that prevents discrimination in health-care programs that receive federal money. The law prevents discrimination based on “sex,” and the rule would apply that to include discrimination based on gender identity.
Rights & Liberties
Appeals Court Denies Life Insurance Claim After Florida Climber Died on a Mountain in Pakistan
A federal appeals court Tuesday rejected a ruling in a South Florida case that would have led to sons of a man who died while mountain climbing in a remote area of Pakistan receiving a $500,000 life-insurance payment.
For the Homeless, ‘Stay Awake or Be Arrested’
In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Supreme Court rejected the claim that criminalizing sleeping in public by those with nowhere to go violates the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. The decision, disappointing but not surprising, will not lead to any reduction in homelessness, and will certainly result in more litigation.
Law Still Blurry as Supreme Court Punts on Florida’s Social Media Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday vacated appeals court decisions involving Florida and Texas laws designed to restrict the power of social media companies to curb content that those platforms consider objectionable, sending Florida’s case back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and the Texas case to the Fifth Circuit.
DeSantis to Farmworkers’ Need for Housing: Drop Dead
Pointing to concerns that it could provide housing for illegal foreign workers, Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday vetoed an agriculture industry-backed bill that would have made it easier to build housing for farmworkers.
Trump Is No Longer the Greatest Danger to the Country. Biden Is.
Biden has a choice: certain defeat and a Trump win, or stepping aside and letting Democrats take the only kind of gamble that gives them at least a competitive chance to win in November, with either California’s Gavin Newsom or Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer at the top of the ticket–and with Whitmer clearly the better of the two. If the Democratic Party allows Biden to dig in, the party loses all legitimacy going forward.
DeSantis Vetoes Occupational License Reform Bill Aimed at Broadening Opportunities and Reducing Recidivism
The bipartisan measure (HB 133) sponsored by Miami-Dade Democrat Kevin Chambliss and Seminole County Republican Rachel Plakon, would have reduced the time from five years to three years that the Barbers’ Board and Board of Cosmetology could use a criminal conviction as grounds to deny licenses.
Ocala Prayer Vigil Organized by Police and City Officials to End Violent Crime Ruled Unconstitutional
Nearly a decade after the event was held amid a crime spree, a federal judge Wednesday ruled that the city of Ocala violated the U.S. Constitution in organizing and carrying out a prayer vigil. U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan issued a 50-page decision that sided with atheists, who argued the prayer vigil in a town square violated the Establishment Clause of the Constitution.
Supreme Court Will Decide Legality of Transgender Care Bans in Decision That Will Affect Florida Law
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether a Tennessee law restricting puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender children is unconstitutional, in a closely watched case that is almost certain to affect similar laws in Florida and more than a dozen other states. Justices will hear the case in the fall, with a decision likely coming in June or July 2025.
The Write-In Fraud
Two people who have zero intention to run campaigns have filed to run as write-ins, closing two Flagler County Commission races to 51 percent of the electorate in cynical maneuvers to benefit Ed Danko and Kim Carney in their respective races, against Pam Richardson in one and Nick Klufas and Bill Clark in the other. The write-in fraud takes advantage of a loophole in the law that enables anyone, without paying a dime or showing any intention to campaign, to be a write-in, thus closing otherwise open primaries.