Category: Florida News

A day after blocking part of a state law aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration, a federal judge Thursday appeared to have second thoughts about the scope of a preliminary injunction he issued. U.S. District Judge Roy Altman initially applied the injunction statewide. But he issued an order Thursday that partially quoted an Arkansas case and said on “further reflection, and given the ‘national conversation taking place in both the legal academy and the judiciary concerning the propriety of courts using universal injunctions as a matter of preliminary relief,’ we now invite further...

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed 11 bills, including a measure that will increase the number of circuit-court and county judges and a bill that will revise a major housing law, known as the “Live Local Act,” that passed in 2023. The bill adding judges (HB 5401) will create a circuit-judge position in the 1st Judicial Circuit, which is made up of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties. It also will create a circuit-judge position in the 20th Judicial Circuit, which is made up of Charlotte, Collier, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties. The bill also will add three county judges in...

Plaintiffs have dropped a federal lawsuit challenging how the state carried out a 2018 constitutional amendment aimed at restoring voting rights of felons who have completed their sentences. The lawsuit, filed in July by the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition and individual plaintiffs, described a “bureaucratic morass” encountered by felons trying to find out if they were eligible to vote. State and local election officials asked Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga to dismiss the case, which was filed in Miami. The parties engaged in mediation on May 6. Florida Department of State...

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday objected to a proposal by the U.S. Air Force that would transfer a Florida Air National Guard squadron to the U.S. Space Force. DeSantis sent a letter to leaders of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and said such proposals need the approval of governors. “If adopted, the proposal would flout more than a century of precedent and undermine federal law protections for state control of their National Guard,” DeSantis wrote. The Air Force’s legislative proposal has raised questions...