A Florida judge this weekend struck down a congressional map approved by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, ruling it diluted minority voting power in the region, making it “unconstitutional.”
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Gov. Ron DeSantis activated the Florida National Guard in an effort to provide ongoing assistance to the state’s corrections officers.
Activating the guard will help reduce overtime for corrections officers and provide temporary staffing relief as the state continues to fill vacancies. They were activated immediately as of Sept. 9 for a period of nine months or until they are no longer needed.
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Florida State Sen. Jason Pizzo (D-Miami) floated the idea of protected abortion access by way of Florida’s constitutional amendment process. His tweet comes in the wake of the overturning of the landmark Roe v. Wade case last month by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling.
The ruling from SCOTUS did not institute a federal ban, but allowed individual states to determine their own stance on abortion access.
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A proposed ballot initiative seeking to become a Florida Constitutional amendment backed by sports betting giants DraftKings and FanDuel fell short of a petition gathering deadline. The ballot measure is now dead in the water after receiving only 502,903 verified petitions. Constitutional ballot measures require 891,589 verified petitions by February 1 to move forward in Florida’s constitutional process.
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Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit against the Seminole Tribe of Florida over whether or not they are working to block petition gatherers for a constitutional amendment that would permit card rooms to operate in casinos.
Las Vegas Sands, who is supporting the lawsuit, launched a political committee entitled “Florida Voters in Charge” and hired petition-gathering firms to get 900,000 petitions before the Feb. 1, 2022 deadline. If they make the deadline, their constitutional amendment would be placed on the general election ballot in November 2022.
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The Florida Commission on Ethics announced yesterday it found probable cause that Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) violated state law when she failed to disclose more than $350,000 in lobbying income when she ran for her current post.
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DraftKings and FanDuel have contributed to more than $20 million to fund a ballot initiative hoping to expand gambling in Florida. The ballot measure would legalize sports betting at all pari-mutuels, professional sports stadiums and arenas, and throughout the state where betters could have access to a mobile sports betting platform.
After the two corporations were left out of the negotiations between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, leading to the Seminole Gaming Compact, the political action committee, Florida Education Champions, is backing this 2022 ballot initiative.
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Attorneys for the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) have issued a 33-page court document earlier this week saying they did not feel the new Seminole Gaming Compact, signed by the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida, violated the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.
The new compact allows the Seminole Tribe to be the primary facilitator of sports betting in the state. The betting takes place on a downloadable app for smartphones, leading to questions about its legality since the betting does not have to take place on tribal land.
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A group behind a proposed ballot initiative to Florida’s Constitution in 2022 is seeking to legalize marijuana growth for personal, recreational use. However, the plan would only afford for 18 plants grown per household.
The organization behind it, Sensible Florida, filed the ballot measure and has a long way to go before it can be validated for approval to the 2022 general election ballot.
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The Florida Realtors group has thrown their weight behind a 2022 ballot proposal they would like to see become a Florida constitutional amendment.
The political committee, Floridians for Housing, is putting the proposal forward after the Florida Legislature has worked for years to allocate affordable housing funds for other issues. Specifically, the ballot initiative would “dedicate 25 percent” of revenue generated from documentary-stamp taxes to be budgeted exclusively for affordable housing.
Documentary-stamp taxes are collected, in part, via real estate transactions and real estate groups have been frustrated with the legislature for years for rerouting affordable-housing tax dollars.
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The newly minted gaming compact between the State of Florida and the Seminole Tribe of Florida is already facing a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality.
The lawsuit says the Seminole Tribe’s claim to being the sports-betting hub, which is still illegal in Florida, creates complications due to gamblers being able to place bets on Seminole servers but while not being on tribal land.
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A federal judge on Thursday blocked a Florida law capping contributions to political committees behind ballot initiatives which become constitutional amendments. The law would have capped the donation limit at $3,000.
Florida’s Constitution is one of the most amended state constitutions in the country, and right-leaning groups and lawmakers have worked to try and ensure Florida’s constitution is “not for sale” to the highest fundraiser or special interests.
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The Florida Supreme Court Thursday struck down a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have put marijuana legalization up for a vote in 2022.
The Court ruled that the language proposed for the ballot did not match the language in the amendment itself.
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