A new lawsuit is challenging the constitutionality of the “anti-rioting” law Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed earlier this week.
Aaron Carter Bates, an Orlando civil rights attorney, filed the federal suit on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Orlando on behalf of the Lawyers Matter Task Force, a nonprofit advocacy group. DeSantis, who signed the bill on Monday, state Attorney General Ashley Moody and Orange County Sheriff John Mina were named in the suit, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
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The then-bill was approved by a vote of 23-17 last Thursday in the Republican-led state Senate and will make it harder for local governments to strip funding away from police departments. It creates a broad category for misdemeanor arrest during protests, and any person charged under the law will not be allowed bail until his or her first court appearance. The law also creates a new felony crime titled “aggravated rioting,” which carries a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
“These statutes are unconstitutional on their face,” the lawsuit claims, because “they target protected speech under the First Amendment [and] they are written with the intent of defining any such protest as a ‘riot’ or participation in such protest as ‘inciting a riot.’”
Under the law, people arrested would be subjected to “excessive bail, fines, or cruel and unusual punishment as a means of hindering the speech of dissenting opinions,” according to the suit, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
Cody McCloud, a spokesman for DeSantis, told the Washington Examiner that their office has not yet been served with the case. “We will firmly defend the legal merits of HB 1, which protects businesses, supports law enforcement, and ensures punishment for those who cause violence in our communities,” he added.
The bill comes on the heels of a year full of protests and demonstrations in the streets. In the immediate aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man who was murdered by Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer convicted of the murder on Tuesday, there were protests nationwide. Some of those demonstrations included violent clashes with the police and destruction of property.
One common mantra that came from the movement was to “defund the police,” though there was debate between groups about whether that meant to “abolish” or “reform” policing.
DeSantis mentioned the destruction in the lead-up to signing the bill into law, noting that such behavior was “not necessarily” in Florida but was felt throughout different parts of the country.
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“We saw last summer some of the local governments were actually telling, not necessarily in Florida but throughout the country, basically telling these folks to stand, telling police to stand down while cities burned, while businesses were burned, while people were being harmed,” DeSantis said before signing the bill. “That’s a dereliction of duty.”
Bates did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s requests for comment.
