News & Commentary

As Tallahassee gears up for the 2016 legislative session, which starts on January 11, anti-immigrant bills have already started rearing their ugly heads.

Towards the end of the summer, Representative Carlos Trujillo (R-District 105) filed a bill (HB 9) that would criminalize immigrants by making it a first degree felony for a person to be knowingly present in the state of Florida after receiving a final deportation order. If this bill were to become law, violations are punishable by up to 30 years in prison and $10,000 in fines. Senator Travis Hutson (R-District 6) filed the companion bill (SB 118) in the senate.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the federal government has jurisdiction over immigration policy. The act of being present in the U.S. in violation of immigration laws, even after an order of deportation, is not an actual crime, despite the “criminal alien” rhetoric.

By Sean J. Young, Staff Attorney, ACLU

Earlier this week, The New York Times published a column asserting that the American Civil Liberties Union has “seemed to take “opposite position[s]” in two voting rights disputes. This is wrong.

In the first dispute, which is pending before the Supreme Court, the question is whether states should be allowed to count all persons for the purposes of equally apportioning their legislative districts, as nearly all states currently do. The ACLU filed an amicus brief answering yes, for our country has long embraced the fundamental principle that all persons, whether or not they can vote, are entitled to equal representation. Given the democratic values of inclusion and equality built into the Constitution, we reject our opponents’ argument that this same Constitution now forces all states to exclude all ineligible voters from their population counts. Millions of non-citizens are contributing members of our communities, and the vast majority of states that currently provide these individuals the same share of representation that citizens receive should be allowed to continue doing so.

By: Jessica Chiappone, Florida Rights Restoration Advocate

In 1988 I was arrested and subsequently convicted of conspiracy to possess cocaine in New York. Since my release from prison over 15 years ago my right to vote was automatically reinstated pursuant to New York law. In 2007, I moved from New York to Florida. However, my right to vote was not acknowledged by full faith and credit in Florida because pursuant to Florida’s Constitution, a citizen cannot vote unless their “rights” are restored. Florida is one of three states that permanently disenfranchises individuals due to a past felony conviction. The other two states are Kentucky and Iowa.

This year, the ACLU of Florida is celebrating its 50th anniversary. That’s half a century of defending the rights and freedoms of Floridians.

This timeline examines some of the most significant cases and historic moments in the history of the organization:

1965 – Founding: In response to the anti-Communist scare of the era, ACLU chapters in Miami, Gainesville and Tampa join together to form the ACLU of Florida. As described in the original 1965 charter, the organization’s mission will be “To uphold the guarantees of freedom of speech, press, assembly, religion, and thought, as provided in the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights and to uphold the Florida State Constitution and Declaration of Rights; to uphold due process of law and equal protection under the law as provided by the Constitution; to encourage an appreciation of our basic liberties; to perpetuate, through a program of education and positive action, respect and devotion for freedom and liberty.”

I first started my career with the ACLU as a voting rights attorney with our National office. In that role, I had the privilege of representing African-American voters who were challenging restrictive voter laws, namely voter ID, and most of my clients grew up in the segregated South. They vividly remembered the inhumanity of Jim Crow laws, especially those that made it impossible for African-Americans to vote and elect candidates of their choice.

One of my former clients, Rev. Peter Johnson based in Texas, was one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s foot soldiers. At the age of 13, Rev. Johnson taught other blacks how to read at the bottom of his uncle’s church so they could pass Louisiana’s literary tests to vote. He recounted stories of how more affluent African-Americans would station themselves in front of polling places and pay the poll tax of any citizen brave enough to attempt to vote.

Doctors and medical personnel throughout Florida will soon be under new orders: Talk to your patients about gun safety and risk losing your right to practice medicine.

Two federal judges, who last year ruled that "patient-privacy" and gun ownership trump freedom of speech, again upheld the gag order on doctors and medical personnel that will go into effect on August 4 -- unless a further appeal is filed.

By Clark West

After 42+ years together and living in the deep south, my partner and I can finally say we are married.

We never thought we would live to see this day, but we are still here. Meeting at the University of Alabama in 1972, we have kept our love alive all these years.

On June 26, 2015, we shared our joy with so many of our friends that have since become our family. Our biological family members, except for a few of the younger ones, are all quiet. The silence is deafening from Alabama, South Carolina and Louisiana where these family members reside.

On the 26th, we put down the banner carrying the nation's shame and we proudly displayed the flag of power, beauty and love, which is the rainbow flag, designed by Gilbert Baker in the 1970s.

By: Elena McCollough- Coast Guard Veteran, retired after 24 years of service

I came to this wonderful country to live permanently in 1977. I finished High School a couple of years later and the week of my 18th birthday I joined the United States Coast Guard. In the military I learned a great deal about work ethics, met amazing and life time friends, traveled to great places like Virginia, Alaska, Puerto Rico, California, Alabama and finished my career 24 years later in Florida. I am thankful to also have learned that teamwork joins individuals on a common cause and that we are most effective when we all contribute our part.

Even though Florida has been a marriage equality state since January, the landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that found bans on marriages of same-sex couples unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment has brought even more legitimacy and security to same-sex couples across the state.

"The Supreme Court has affirmed what a majority of Floridians and indeed all Americans have come to understand: that the freedom to marry is a precious and fundamental right that we all share under the Constitution, and that no family should be denied that. We are proud of our colleagues from the two ACLU lawsuits that were among the cases that brought about this decision. But more importantly, we are thrilled for the hundreds of thousands of couples and their families for whom this victory has been decades in the making," said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida.