Florida Constitutional Law

The Eighth Amendment’s Time to Shine: Previewing Florida’s Imminent Constitutional Crisis in Capital Punishment

Melanie Kalmanson

Abstract In April 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis enacted legislation that lowers the jury vote necessary to impose a sentence of death in the state to 8–4. The new statute removes the procedural safeguards that were implemented after the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2016 that Florida’s capital sentencing scheme violated defendants’ right to jury […]

Affording The Franchise: Amendment 4 & The Senate Bill 7066 Litigation

Dalia Figueredo

Abstract Felon re-enfranchisement statutes that condition the restoration ofvoting rights on the payment of legal financial obligations have beenchallenged under the Fourteenth and Twenty-Fourth Amendments to theU.S. Constitution. To date, these challenges have been unsuccessfulbecause felons are not a protected class, disenfranchised felons do nothave a fundamental right to vote under existing case law, and […]

Marla Spector Bowman, Docs v. Glocks: Doctors, Guns, Discrimination, and Privacy – Is Anyone Winning?

Americans discuss some of the most intimate details of their lives within the small confines of their neighborhood doctor’s office. Many Americans, however, may be taken aback if their physician asked them whether they owned a firearm during a routine physical examination. Although most Americans might not consider firearms education to be their physician’s primary […]

Caycee Hampton, Confirmation of a Catch-22: Glik V. Cunniffe and the Paradox of Citizen Recording

63 Fla. L. Rev. 1549 (2011)| | | | On October 1, 2007, Simon Glik observed several police officers arresting a young man on the Boston Common. Concerned that the officers were employing excessive force, Glik began to record the arrest with his cell phone. After successfully arresting the young man, an officer asked Glik […]

Kristen Rasmussen, Shedding (False) Light: How the Florida Supreme Court's Rejection of the Tort Falsely Implies Protection for Media Defendants: Jews for Jesus, Inc. v. Rapp, 997 So. 2d 1098 (Fla. 2008)

61 Fla. L. Rev. 911 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Edith and Marty Rapp, a Jewish Florida couple, were married until Marty’s death in 2003. Bruce Rapp, Marty’s son and Edith’s stepson, worked for Jews for Jesus. Prior to Marty’s death, Bruce included the following account in a Jews for Jesus newsletter: I […]

Akhil Reed Amar, Bush, Gore, Florida, and the Constitution

61 Fla. L. Rev. 945 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Ten years ago this week, Dunwody Lecturer Cass Sunstein stood at this podium and offered some thoughts about the then-recent impeachment of President Clinton. Professor Sunstein titled his remarks Lessons from a Debacle: From Impeachment to Reform. Today I shall share with you […]

Erwin Chemerinsky, The Meaning of Bush v. Gore: Thoughts on Professor Amar's Analysis

| | | | INTRODUCTION :: It is tempting to blame the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Bush v. Gore for the evils the Bush Administration inflicted on the nation. If only Al Gore had become president, there would not have been the disastrous war in Iraq or the enormous deficit-spending to fund it, […]

Richard L. Hasen, Bush v. Gore and the Lawlessness Principle: A Comment on Professor Amar

61 Fla. L. Rev. 979 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: Akhil Amar begins his impressive Dunwody Lecture by questioning whether there “are any new things left to say about the Bush-Gore episode.” 1 It is a legitimate question to ask, given the torrent of scholarship since the 2000 Florida debacle. In some ways, […]

Allison Sirica, A Great Gamble: Why Compromise Is the Best Bet to Resolve Florida's Indian Gaming Crisis

61 Fla. L. Rev. 1201 (2009) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: “Indian gaming is a national multi-billion dollar enterprise and growing.” Even in 2008, amidst an economic downturn, the revenues generated by the tribal gaming industry continued to show growth. In 2008 alone, Indian gaming generated $ 26.7 billion and accounted for a little […]

Nicolas Hamann, Florida Constitutional Law: Reducing Legislative Discretion: A Clearly Unclear Application of Expressio Unius

58 Fla. L. Rev. 935 (2006) | | | | TEXT :: The Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) provided public school students with the option of transferring to either an eligible private school or to another public school that met certain academic requirements. If the student chose a private school, the State would then issue a […]

Lila Haughey, Florida Constitutional Law: Closing the Door to Opportunity: The Florida Supreme Court's Analysis of Uniformity in the Context of Article IX, Section 1

58 Fla. L. Rev. 945 (2006) | | | | TEXT :: The Florida legislature enacted the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in 2002 to improve the quality of education in Florida, allowing students at failing public schools to either attend another public school or use state funds to enroll at a private school. Florida public […]

Jason Marques, Florida Constitutional Law: Circumscribing Legislative Authority in The Absence of a Clear Prohibition

58 Fla. L. Rev. 957 (2006) | | | | TEXT :: The Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), a state-funded, parent- choice voucher system, was designed to provide private school scholarships to students enrolled in certain Florida public schools. Upon its enactment in 1999, Respondents assailed the OSP as facially defective under both the state and […]

Steven J. Wernick, In Accordance with a Public Outcry: Zoning Out Sex Offenders through Residence Restrictions in Florida

58 Fla. L. Rev. 1147 (2006) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: On January 11, 2006, William Smith Jr., a sixty-five-year-old convicted sex offender, moved into a small wooden house behind a day-care center in Ocala, Florida. His housewarming, however, was short-lived. The day after Smith moved in, local police officers arrived at his house […]

O. Carter Snead, Dynamic Complementarity: Terri's Law and Separation of Powers Principles in the End-Of-Life Context

57 Fla. L. Rev. 53 (2005) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: The bitter dispute over the proper treatment of Theresa Marie Schiavo-a severely brain damaged woman, unable to communicate and with no living will or advance directive-has garnered enormous attention in the media, both national and international. What began as a heated disagreement between […]

Charles T. Douglas, Jr., Compensating for Canker: A Sore Subject for Florida's Citrus Growers: Haire v. Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, 870 So. 2d 774 (Fla. 2004)

57 Fla. L. Rev. 421 (2005) | | | TEXT :: Florida’s citrus canker law (the Canker Law) requires the State to destroy healthy-appearing citrus trees that are within a 1900-foot radius of an infected tree. The Florida Legislature enacted this eradication program to thwart the spread of canker and to protect Florida’s second largest […]

Justin Smith, Post-Conviction Relief under Florida Law: The Undue Process of the Evolutionary Refinement

57 Fla. L. Rev. 653 (2005) | | | | INTRODUCTION :: “We might go further and say that even those laws which have been written down are best regarded as not unchangeable.” Aristotle “[T]hey are . . . promulgated established laws, not to be varied in particular cases, but to have one rule . […]

Diane Lourdes Dick, Constitutional Law: Reaffirming Every Floridian's Broad and Fundamental Right to Privacy

56 Fla. L. Rev. 447 (2004) | | | | TEXT :: In 1999, the Florida Legislature passed the Parental Notice of Abortion Act (the Act), which required minors seeking an abortion to either notify a parent prior to the procedure or obtain court approval to waive parental notice. A minor choosing the latter option […]