How a Christian group crafted Miami school board policy

By Sommer Brugal

Axios Miami

June 18, 2024

Liberty Counsel, an advocacy group that promotes a "historically Christian and biblical" worldview, helped write the Miami-Dade School Board's policy for opening invocations at meetings.

Why it matters: Public education advocates say conservative officials are increasingly pushing Christian ideals in Florida schools.

• Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a ministry and legal advocacy organization, is classified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Driving the news: The Liberty Counsel's role in crafting the policy wasn't publicly disclosed, but it surfaced in emails recently obtained by national progressive watchdog group True North Research.

• The emails, shared with Axios, show that representatives of Liberty Counsel and the Christian Family Coalition sent board member Roberto Alonso another district's "legislative prayer policy" in early May 2023.

Catch up quick: Alonso proposed the new invocation policy that month, and the board approved it in August.

• At the time, Alonso said an invocation would set a positive tone for the meeting and "bring to light" the diversity in the school district, but supporters who spoke largely espoused the Christian faith.
• The policy largely echoed the language provided to him by the two Christian groups, which had previously been adopted by Okaloosa County.

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Florida transparency advocates push measure to toughen public records violation penalties

By Doug Soule

Tallahassee Democrat

June 17, 2024

Worried that Florida's long-lauded government transparency laws are in "a state of crisis," open access advocates are pursuing legislation they hope will turn the tides.

Bobby Block, the First Amendment Foundation's executive director, announced Saturday that his group and others will bring forward a measure that would toughen penalties against the government for wrongfully delaying or denying a public records request and create an independent office to oversee appeals and complaints.

"Right now the problem is too many people are delayed, denied or ignored," Block said in an interview after the announcement, which came during a Tallahassee awards ceremony organized by his group. "If that happens, you have no recourse, whether you're a company, which are the biggest users of public records law, whether you're an individual, whether you're a news organization or whether you're a lawyer."

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First Amendment advocacy organization calls city’s meeting ban ‘excessive’

Cape Coral Breeze

By Valarie Harring

4/16/2024

First Amendment Foundation urges Cape Coral City Council to revisit ban time periods as they 'could unlawfully infringe' on citizen rights

The First Amendment Foundation has sent a letter to the city strongly urging a rework of recent rule changes that allow Cape Coral City Council to impose attendance bans for violating meeting decorum.

The consequences portion of the policy Council enacted in February allowing for bans of 30-90 days “is excessive and does not leave a private citizen ample alternatives that would allow such persons to participate in the free expression of ideas,” the April 11 letter to Mayor John Gunter and City Manager Michael Ilczyszyn states, concluding the ban time periods “could unlawfully infringe on private citizens First Amendment rights.”

The four-page communication cites various legal precedent and is signed by FAF Executive Director Bobby Block.

“Courts, such as in Brown v. City of Jacksonville, have recognized that a restriction needs to be narrowly tailored and leaves citizens with ample alternatives which a ban that can span over several months does not. It is overly restrictive and can therefore act as a prior restraint due to the excessive time limits,” the letter states.

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Get back: Florida Senate passes bill to criminalize getting too close to working police

USA Today Network

By Douglas Soule

2/15/2024

The Florida Senate has a message for those who get too close to cops: Get out of their way or go to jail.

Senators unanimously passed a bill Thursday that would create a first-degree misdemeanor for anyone who defies a warning and "impedes" police or other first responders when they’re at work. Despite questions previously raised by some Democratic lawmakers, asking whether it would prevent recording the police, the chamber approved the legislation (SB 184).

“This bill ensures (first responders’) safety, but it also ensures that the public's safety is prioritized, and it ensures ... we are containing a situation to make sure it doesn’t evolve into something more catastrophic,” said Sen. Bryan Avila, R-Miami Springs, the bill's sponsor.

A first-degree misdemeanor is punishable by up to a year in prison. That punishment would come if someone, ignoring a warning issued by a first responder, approaches, harasses or remains within 14 feet of them at work with the intent to impede the first responders, harass or threaten them with physical harm.

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