For DeSantis, the pandemic offered the opportunity to distinguish himself from Trump. In January [2022], Jonathan Chait described his strategy in New York magazine:
Where Trump was tiptoeing around vaccine skepticism, DeSantis jumped in with both feet, banning private companies like cruise lines from requiring vaccination, appointing a vaccine skeptic to his state’s highest office, and refusing to say if he’s gotten his booster dose.
DeSantis “may or may not actually be more delusional on Covid than Donald Trump,” Chait wrote, “but it is a revealing commentary on the state of their party that he sees his best chance to supplant Trump as positioning himself as even crazier” (Edsall 2).
[Here are some of the far-right bills that DeSantis has championed to become Florida law.]
Intimidating University Students and Faculty
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed legislation into law on Tuesday [June 2021] that requires students and faculty of public Florida universities to report their political views to the state starting this July. [It] … requires university students and faculty to fill out a survey from the government about their political beliefs in what Gov. DeSantis has called an effort to monitor “intellectual diversity” on campus. Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson (R), echoing the Governor’s sentiments, said that there was a “great risk” that the state’s universities had become “socialism factories.”
Democrats and university faculty have attempted to get answers from state Republicans on how these survey results will be used, as the bill provides no guarantees or protections against partisan targeting of campuses and staff and does not protect student confidentiality. The move to “diversify” campus speech comes just a few days after Gov. DeSantis publicly supported the banning of critical race theory and announced he would campaign against any school board members who promote teaching the history of racism in America to Florida students.
Moment of Silence Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has signed [June 2021] a new law mandating that public schools in the Sunshine State have a daily moment of silence.
The bill, which DeSantis signed into law on Monday, requires teachers to set aside at least one minute each day in the first period of school for a moment of silence.
Teachers are prohibited “from making suggestions as to the nature of any reflection that a student may engage in during the moment of silence,” the law states.
DeSantis spoke about the new law in religious terms when signing it on Monday, saying it allows students to “reflect and be able to pray as they see fit,”according to local television station WJXT.
The governor, a close ally of former president Trump, signed the bill at a Jewish community center while behind a placard that read “protect religious liberty,” the local outlet reported (Oshin 1).
Anti-Riot Bill
The legislation is one of many attempts to monitor and silence dissent that Florida Republicans have passed into law this year. In April [2021], Gov. DeSantis signed HB 1 into law, an “anti-riot bill” that Democrats say will stifle First Amendment rights to protest and is purposely written broadly to allow police significant leeway to arrest and convict protesters (Florida 1).
Florida's new "anti-riot" law championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis as a way to quell violent protests, is unconstitutional, and cannot be enforced; a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The 90-page decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee found the recently-enacted law "vague and overbroad" and amounted to an assault on First Amendment rights of free speech and assembly as well as the Constitution's due process protections.
People engaged in peaceful protest or innocently in the same area when a demonstration turned violent could face criminal charges and stiff penalties under the law, the judge said.
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DeSantis said during an appearance in New Port Richey that the state will take its case to the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. …
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The lawsuit was filed against DeSantis and other state officials by the NAACP Florida conference, Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter, Alliance Broward and other groups who argue the law appears specifically aimed to halt protests by Black people and other minorities.
The measure was passed earlier this year by the GOP-led Legislature and signed into law [2021] by the governor. It was a reaction to demonstrations around the country following last year's killing by Minneapolis police of George Floyd, a Black man, that stirred passions nationwide under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement (Associated “Judge” 1).
Anti-Sanctuary Cities Bill
On September 22, 2021, a federal judge ruled that sections of a 2019 Florida immigration enforcement law were racially motivated. The law generally banned so-called sanctuary cities, which is a city, county, or state that limits its cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in order to protect low-priority undocumented immigrants from deportation.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in 2019 as one of his administration’s priorities. His administration said it would appeal the ruling.
U.S. Southern District of Florida Judge Beth Bloom struck down portions of SB 168 that bans local and state officials from adopting “sanctuary” policies for undocumented immigrants and requires law enforcement agencies and officers to “use best efforts to support the enforcement of immigration law” when actively performing their duties. She also blocked a provision that enables local and state agencies to transport detainees to federal custody outside of their jurisdiction.
Judge Bloom repeatedly said that the law was racially motivated and that its supporters provided no evidence that such law was necessary to lower crime. Additionally, she said anti-immigrant hate groups such as Floridians for Immigration Enforcement guided the bill, citing numerous correspondence between the organization and staff members of State Senator Joe Gruters, who sponsored the bill.
The case began after the city of South Miami, the Florida Immigration Coalition, and other organizations filed a lawsuit against Gov. DeSantis in order to void the law. The plaintiffs’ witnesses testified that more people were victims of domestic violence because they were afraid of being deported if they involved the police. Others said undocumented immigrants did not access social services or healthcare clinics because of the same fear.
According to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and federal data on ICE arrests, which was presented by the plaintiffs, approximately 73 percent of ICE arrests in Florida between 2015 and 2018 involved individuals with no criminal history or a record of minor offenses.
On the other hand, only 0.4 percent of these arrests involved individuals with serious criminal offenses, such as sexual assault and murder. Therefore, the bill sponsors’ claim that the law would improve public safety and reduce crime rates are not supported by statistical data, despite the increase in undocumented immigration (Hubbs 1-2).
Anti-Mandate Law Protecting Workers and Children’s Parents
Today [November 18, 2021], Governor Ron DeSantis was joined by Florida Speaker Chris Sprowls and Senate President Wilton Simpson to sign legislation that will protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to COVID-19 vaccine mandates and protect parents' rights to make healthcare decisions for students. The bills were passed through a Special Session of the Florida Legislature and are effective upon the Governor's signature. The legislation signed today is the strongest pro-freedom, anti-mandate action taken by any state in the nation.
✓ Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited.
✓ Employers who violate these employee health protections will be fined.
✓ Government entities may not require COVID-19 vaccinations of anyone, including employees.
✓ Educational institutions may not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated.
✓ School districts may not have school face mask policies.
✓ School districts may not quarantine healthy students.
✓ Students and parents may sue violating school districts and recover costs and attorney's fees (Florida 1-2).
“Don’t Say Gay” Bill
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed legislation on Monday [March 2022] that prohibits classroom instruction and discussion about sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school grades, a law that opponents have called “Don’t Say Gay.”
“We will make sure that parents can send their kids to school to get an education, not an indoctrination,” Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, said from a classroom at a charter school in Spring Hill, Fla., north of Tampa.
The law, titled “Parental Rights in Education,” has drawn national criticism from L.G.B.T.Q. organizations that fear it will have a chilling effect among teachers and young students.
Workers at Disney, one of the state’s major employers and corporate political donors, staged walkouts in protest after the bill passed the Legislature, even after the company’s chief executive had apologized to employees for not taking a stronger stand against the legislation and paused contributions to political campaigns. On Monday, Disney released a statement condemning the new law and urging lawmakers to repeal it or the courts to strike it down.
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“DeSantis is attempting to censor and exclude an entire community of people from our public schools for his own political gain,” State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat and the state’s first openly gay Latino lawmaker, said in a statement. “This law doesn’t solve any problem that exists.”
The uproar did little to move the governor or lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature, who spent much of their annual session passing legislation to put Florida at the forefront of the nation’s culture wars, including a 15-week abortion ban, while avoiding pressing issues such as the state’s lack of affordable housing and shaky insurance market.
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“If those are the types of people that are opposing us on parents’ rights, I wear that like a badge of honor,” he [DeSantis] said at the bill signing. “I don’t care what corporate media outlets say, I don’t care what Hollywood says, I don’t care what big corporations say. Here I stand. I’m not backing down” (Mazzei 1).
Hospital Visitation Bill
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed a COVID-19-linked bill requiring health care centers to allow in-person visitations, as the Republican announced he approved dozens of other measures passed during this year’s legislative session.
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The visitation bill requires that health care facilities, including nursing homes, allow in-person visits during end-of-life situations and in most other cases.
DeSantis and other state health officials said the measure was inspired by hospitals limiting visits during the coronavirus pandemic (Associated “DeSantis” 1).
No CRT in the Classroom Bill
Florida lawmakers on Thursday [March 2022] passed a bill that would limit how educators discuss certain racial issues in classrooms.
The bill, known as HB 7/Individual Freedom, was passed by the Senate along party lines Thursday and now goes to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was expected to sign it into law.
DeSantis and Republican lawmakers in the state have pushed for legislation to prevent Critical Race Theory instruction in schools, with the governor proposing a "Stop W.O.K.E. Act" last year to take aim against CRT in schools. The acronym stands for "Stop the Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees."
Proponents said the bill simply states that teachers and businesses can't force students and employees to feel they are to blame for racial injustices in America's past.
Opponents said the legislation was designed to create racial division and would have a chilling effect on the discussion of injustices past and present.
The bill reads in part, "A person should not be instructed that he or she must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race or sex."
Critical race theory is a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. It was developed during the 1970s and 1980s in response to what scholars viewed as a lack of racial progress following the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society (Florida Senate 1).
Anti-Abortion Law
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law on Thursday [April 2022] a Mississippi-style anti-abortion measure that bans the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy without exemptions for rape, incest or human trafficking.
The bill, which goes into effect July 1, does allow exemptions in cases where a pregnancy is "serious risk" to the mother or a fatal fetal abnormality is detected if two physicians confirm the diagnosis in writing.
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Previously, Florida had allowed abortion through the second trimester of a pregnancy, making it one of the most permissive states for abortion in the southeast. Abortion advocates said many women from neighboring states often traveled to Florida for the procedure, meaning changes to Florida's law could be felt all throughout the region.
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"We are here today to defend those who can't defend themselves," DeSantis said Thursday on a stage surrounded by several female lawmakers, anti-abortion advocates and children. "This will represent the most significant protections for life that we have seen in a generation."
The signing of the bill comes days after a Tallahassee circuit court judge ruled that Florida can require a 24-hour waiting period to get an abortion, ending a seven-year legal battle over another contentious anti-abortion measure (Contorno 1-2).
DeSantis Wants Stronger Gerrymander Bill
Republican legislative leaders in Florida say they're going to give up trying to redraw the state's new map of congressional districts and instead consider one offered by Gov. Ron DeSantis during a special session next week [April 2022].
DeSantis, a potential Republican presidential aspirant, has been pushing a map that's considered more advantageous to his party.
The announcement on Monday by state Senate President Wilton Simpson and House Speaker Chris Sprowls came two weeks after DeSantis vetoed a map that had been approved by the legislature.
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Florida is one of just three states with more than one congressional district that hasn't yet finalized its new map, according to FiveThirtyEight.
The state could prove crucial to determining control of the U.S. House.
Thanks to massive population growth, Florida gained a congressional seat as a result of the last U.S. census, for a total of 28 districts (Hernandez 1).
Stop Woke Act
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Friday that aims to regulate how schools and businesses address race and gender, the state’s latest effort to restrict education about those topics.
The law, which has become known as the “Stop WOKE Act,” prohibits workplace training or school instruction that teaches that individuals are “inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously”; that people are privileged or oppressed based on race, gender, or national origin; or that a person “bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” over actions committed in the past by members of the same race, gender, or national origin. The law says such trainings or lessons amount to discrimination.
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“No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race,” DeSantis said in a statement on Friday [April 22, 2022]. “In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”
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“This dangerous law is part of a nationwide trend to whitewash history and chill free speech in classrooms and workplaces,” Amy Turkel, interim executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement. “It will infringe on teachers’ and employers’ First Amendment rights and chill their ability to use concepts like systemic racism and gender discrimination to teach about and discuss important American history.”
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… it prohibits lessons or trainings in schools and workplaces that teach that individuals “should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion,” an apparent reference to affirmative action policies, which traditionally benefit Black and Latino students or employees in an effort to offset centuries of racial discrimination. They may also not advance the idea that concepts like merit or racial colorblindness “were created by members of a particular race, color, sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex, or national origin” (Reilly 1-2).
Works cited:
Associated Press. “A Judge Has Blocked the 'Anti-Riot' Law Passed in Florida after George Floyd Protests.” NPR, September 9, 2021. Net. https://www.npr.org/2021/09/09/1035687247/florida-anti-riot-law-ron-desantis-george-floyd-black-lives-matter-protests
Associated Press. “DeSantis Signs Hospital Visitation Bill, Other Legislation.” Local 10, April 8, 2022. Net. https://www.local10.com/news/florida/2022/04/08/desantis-signs-hospital-visitation-bill-other-legislation/
Contorno, Steve. “DeSantis Signs Florida's 15-Week Abortion Ban into Law.” CNN, April 14, 2022. Net. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/14/politics/desantis-signs-abortion-ban-florida/index.html
Edsall, Thomas B. ‘”We Want People That Are Going To Fight the Left,’ Says the Man Out-Trumping Trump.” New York Times, March 16, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/16/opinion/ron-desantis-is-gambling-on-out-trumping-trump.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
Florida Health. “ ICYMI- Governor Ron Desantis Signs Legislation to Protect Florida Jobs.” Florida Health, November 18, 2021. Net. https://www.floridahealth.gov/newsroom/2021/11/20211118-icymi-legislation-protect-florida-jobs.pr.html
“Florida Senate Passes Race Education Bill, Goes to DeSantis for Signature.” NBCMiami, March 10, 2022. Net. https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/florida-senate-passes-race-education-bill-goes-to-desantis-for-signature/2710663/
“Florida Students Must Register Their Political Views with the State.” Democracy Docket, June 23, 2021. Net. https://www.democracydocket.com/alerts/florida-students-must-register-their-political-views-with-the-state/
Hernandez, Joe. “Florida Lawmakers Let DeSantis Draw a Congressional Map after He Vetoed the Last One.” NPR, April 12, 2022. Net. https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092290277/florida-lawmakers-let-desantis-draw-a-congressional-map-after-he-vetoed-the-last
Hubbs Law Firm. “Federal Judge Rules Florida's SB 168 Was Racially Motivated.” Hubbs Law, October 15, 2021. Net. https://www.hubbslawfirm.com/blog/2021/october/federal-judge-rules-floridas-sb-168-was-racially/
Mazzei, Patricia. “DeSantis Signs Florida Bill that Opponents Call ‘Don’t Say Gay’.” New York Times, March 28, 2022. Net. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/28/us/desantis-florida-dont-say-gay-bill.html
Oshin, Olafimhan. “DeSantis Signs Law Mandating Daily Moment of Silence in Florida Schools.” The Hill, June 15, 2021. Net. https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/558563-desantis-signs-law-mandating-daily-moment-of-silence-in-florida-schools/
Reilly, Katie. “Florida’s Governor Just Signed the 'Stop Woke Act.’ Here’s What It Means for Schools and Businesses.” Time, April 22, 2022. Net. https://time.com/6168753/florida-stop-woke-law/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=sfmc&utm_campaign=newsletter+brief+default+ac&utm_content=+++20220425+++body&et_rid=207222382&lctg=207222382
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