Civil-rights lawyers file federal suit against DeSantis over newly signed 'riot bill'

[mia]

Source: Miami Herald

Civil-rights attorneys are challenging a new set of state laws that establish a crime of “mob intimidation” and enhance penalties for riot-related violence and looting, arguing in a federal lawsuit that the measures unconstitutionally “seek to arrest the peaceful expression of free speech.”

The challenge was filed Wednesday, two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the controversial package (HB 1), one of his top legislative priorities. The governor laid out a framework for the legislation in September in response to nationwide protests after the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Republican lawmakers gave final approval to the changes last week, ignoring objections by Democrats and civil-rights groups that predicted the proposal would be challenged in court. A nonprofit organization known as the Lawyers Matter Task Force and other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in federal court in Orlando, naming as defendants DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Orange County Sheriff John Mina.

The laws, among other things, create a new felony crime of “aggravated rioting” that carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a new crime of “mob intimidation,” which makes it unlawful “for a person, assembled with two or more other persons and acting with a common intent, to use force or threaten to use imminent force, to compel or induce, or attempt to compel or induce, another person to do or refrain from doing any act or to assume, abandon, or maintain a particular viewpoint against his or her will.”





Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article250851844.html

[yaesu]

1. Racists in FLA and other fascist states that are passing these laws may be protected by these

states but they are not protected from Federal crimes like hate crimes when they murder people with their cars.

[cstanleytech]

2. "mob intimidation," could be applied to police officers as well at a protest.

[BobsYourUncle]

5. Be very careful not to make that statement at a protest in Florida...

If two or more people agree with you, you’re in trouble.

[csziggy]

7. It could also have been used at the Brooks Brother Riot of 2000

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/1/11/2008016/-Storming-the-Capitol-was-unprecedented-Guess-again-remember-the-Brooks-Brothers-Riot

But we know the Florida Legislature's intent - to stop "those people" from protesting the status quo, while the Brooks Brother riot participants and the Capitol insurrectionists intent was to maintain the status quo for an increasingly smaller number of wealthy white people.

[Roy Rolling]

3. Strike it Down

The courts have been reliable arbiters of most cases, they must preserve the rule of law when the Congress is infiltrated by traitors and the former-guy’s executive branch was dangerously corrupt and compromised.

Cult members were defeated by the alternative math universe they created, one where a president is elected with fewer votes. But they couldn’t defeat the new alternative math: 1 > 2 .

Do the math. 😜

[bucolic_frolic]

4. Broad language of indeterminate application does not deserve to become law

"to compel or induce, or attempt to compel or induce, another person to do or refrain from doing any act"

So by that idea, if you're assembled and you incite, it's a crime. It's also a crime if you say "don't do that!"

They got you either way.

Nice that they've admitted rioting as deserving 15 years, though. Jan 6 insurrectionists take note.

[notKeith]

6. I'm waiting for a "Stand your ground" vs "Mow em down" lawsuit.

So what happens if, say, a dozen people are protesting .. something.. and a moron in a sedan decides to try to run them over. But a couple protesters are carrying firearms, and shoot the driver before he can hit them. They're standing their ground. Florida has funny laws.