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Hearing on Miami-Dade's Cuba Ordinance Set For Friday, 10:15 a.m.
May 11, 2000
MIAMI -- A federal court hearing has been set for Friday in the American Civil Liberties Union's challenge to the controversial Miami-Dade County "Cuba Ordinance."
The hearing, scheduled in response to the Plaintiffs' Motion for Preliminary Injunction, is set for 10:15 a.m. in U.S. District Court Judge Frederico Moreno's chambers (99 N.E. 4th Street, 10th Floor, Courtroom 4). Both the County and the ACLU will present arguments and witnesses will testify.
The class action lawsuit, Miami Light Project v. Miami-Dade County, was filed by ACLU Cooperating Attorneys Bruce Rogow and Beverly Pohl on behalf of the Miami Light Project, GableStage, the Cuban Cultural Group, and concert promoters Debra Ohanian and Hugo Cancio -- both not-for-profit and for-profit entities offering educational, artistic, balletic, cinematic or other cultural events that might directly or indirectly involve Cuban nationals.
The hearing on the motion to prohibit enforcement of the Ordinance was triggered when Miami-Dade County set May 16 as the cut-off day for applications for cultural grants. (The original cut-off date was April 13, but the County extended the date to May 16.) Applications will not be considered without the submission of a signed Cuba Affidavit, which the County requires as a precondition to consider grant applications. The Affidavit directly warns grant applicants that, "Failure to submit the Cuba Affidavit by this application deadline shall render the application non-responsive and ineligible for further grant consideration." If the Plaintiffs do not sign the Cuba Affidavit, they will be barred from grant considerations for projects through May 2001. ACLU attorneys will argue on Friday that an injunction against the enforcement of the Cuba Affidavit is necessary to ensure that First Amendment and other constitutional rights are not irreparably lost.
The lawsuit challenges the constitutionality of the County's "Cuba Restrictions" and the "Cuba Affidavit," which is required of all groups wishing to apply for County cultural grants or seeking to use County facilities for cultural venues.
All groups seeking cultural grants from Miami-Dade County or seeking to use County facilities for cultural and artistic performances are required to sign a Cuba Affidavit, which bars them from doing business with Cuba or with people who do business with Cuba. Specifically, the Affidavit requires all cultural and artistic groups to swear that they have not engaged in business, financial dealings, or other transactions with a Cuban national, the government of Cuba, or persons or entities engaged in business with Cuba. Applicants must also swear that they have not traveled to Cuba within ten years in violation of the U.S. travel restrictions.
The ACLU is seeking to have the federal district court prevent Miami-Dade County from requiring Cuba Restrictions and a Cuba Affidavit for cultural endeavors. An injunction would allow Miami-Dade artistic organizations to apply for County grants or contracts without signing the Affidavit or otherwise complying with the Cuba Restrictions.
In its motion for preliminary injunction, the ACLU argues that the Cuba Restrictions violate the First Amendment in a variety of ways: they prohibit cultural expression based on national origin, deny government benefits based on association with some people, impose a prior restraint on art, music and culture simply because of national origin, require a loyalty oath to a political cause, and permit the Board of County Commissioners to act as a censor.
The ACLU also claims that the Cuba Restrictions and Cuba Affidavit nconstitutionally infringe on the federal government's foreign affairs powers, the federal government's foreign and interstate commerce clause powers, the Supremacy Clause, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
"Whatever the original purpose of the County's Cuba Ordinance, its principal effect has been to limit cultural and artistic freedom for the people of Miami-Dade County," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. "We should not be fighting repression in Cuba by imposing censorship in Miami. Instead, we should be demonstrating the value of a system that protects freedom of speech for all points of view."
Copies of ACLU's Emergency Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Memorandum of Law in Support of the Motion for Preliminary Injunction are available on request from the ACLU office: (305) 576-2337.
