Today, the Judicial Committee of the Florida Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) voted down Proposal 22, which would have significantly limited Florida’s constitutional right to privacy.
Celebrating today’s committee vote, ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon stated:
“We are very pleased that this dangerous proposal has been stopped, and that the strong constitutional protection of privacy rights enjoyed by Floridians has survived to live another day.
“Proposal 22 would have undermined Floridians’ constitutional right to privacy, opening up huge portions of our private lives to legislative restriction and government intrusion. The real aim of this proposal was not the protection of personal information – that was never at risk. The real purpose is to allow the legislature to impose more intrusive restrictions on Florida women, making it harder for them to access an abortion. This tampering with Floridians’ right of privacy in order to undermine protections that Florida women have in making their own reproductive health decisions would have also had numerous unintended consequences that would reverberate across many aspects of our personal lives.
“We are grateful to the committee for their thoughtful debate and especially for those who voted to retain a strong and independent constitutional right to privacy. We also thank University of Florida Law Prof. John Mills, one of the authors of Florida’s constitutional privacy protection, for the guidance he provided to the Judicial Committee.
“Finally, we are grateful to the hundreds of Floridians who took action to stand up for their own rights by contacting the CRC and speaking out about the dangers posed by Proposal 22.”