Florida’s ‘firewall’ judge rescues democracy, again | Editorial

From the first sentence of a 58-page order, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s outrage practically jumps off the page.

“This case,” he wrote, “arises from Florida’s latest assault on the right to vote.”

The chief federal judge in Tallahassee enjoined Florida from implementing two key parts of a new voting law that impose towering new obstacles on individuals and groups that register voters in the state.

One part of the law (SB 7050) prohibits non-U.S. citizens from registering citizens to vote. The other makes it a crime for third-party voter registration groups to retain personal information on new voters to help with get-out-the-vote efforts in the upcoming presidential election.

Those punitive steps are too broad and too vague, opponents argued in a lawsuit, and the judge agreed. In exhaustive detail, he ruled that the provisions violate the First and 14th amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

In Walker’s own words

“When state government power threatens to spread beyond constitutional bounds and reduce individual rights to ashes, the federal judiciary stands as a firewall,” the judge wrote. “The Free State of Florida is simply not free to exceed the bounds of the United States Constitution.”

The Legislature’s latest attack on democracy unfolded with remarkable speed — as did this legal challenge.

That reflects the extreme risk of criminal prosecution, including jail time and fines of up to $50,000, faced by canvassers, clutching clipboards with blank voter registration forms, who seek out unregistered adults at churches, fairs and public places.

The bill itself, as we have noted, was sprung on the public with 24 hours’ notice before a hearing in the state Capitol in April. Citizens seeking to revise or block the bill were marginalized and given one minute or less to testify before state legislative committees.

It passed the Senate April 26 and the House on April 28 and DeSantis signed it on May 24. The plaintiffs filed suit a day later. Walker held a hearing on June 28 and issued his injunction on July 3, two days after this latest attack on voting took effect — and the day before Floridians celebrated freedom on Independence Day.

A timely legal challenge

The challenge was brought by the Florida State Conference of Branches and Youth Units of the NAACP, the Hispanic Federation and multiple individuals who work for them and for other third-party voter registration organizations in Florida.

They include Veronica Herrera-Lucha, the statewide field director for Mi Vecino (my neighbor), working mostly in Orange, Osceola and Polk counties. A mother of four who is paid $55,000 a year, she faces the loss of her job because of this law.

She and some of the canvassers she supervises are not U.S. citizens, but they are legally allowed to work here.

Non-citizens harvest vegetables in the fields of Palm Beach County and elsewhere. They change linens in hotels on International Drive near Disney World. As court testimony showed, non-citizens work in post offices where they sort mail — including voter registration forms. So why can’t they also help citizens become voters?

The answer is because the Republican supermajority in the Legislature said so, and in Walker’s view, that’s not nearly reason enough. The judge said that the state has given no logical reason why it is targeting non-citizens.

Delaying tactics, too

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration sought to use delaying tactics to forestall this latest legal defeat by claiming that the cases should not be heard until October because the law allows for the state to give affected groups 90 days notice of the new provisions.

Through his chief elections officer, Secretary of State Cord Byrd, the named defendant in the case, DeSantis wanted to deny Floridians the right to immediately challenge him in court. Nothing doing, Walker decided. Every day that passes with this law in effect, someone’s rights are taken away.

This case marks the latest in a long line of cases in which Walker has struck down or enjoined voting laws signed by DeSantis and his predecessor, Rick Scott, as arbitrary, discriminatory or unconstitutional.

Walker struck down parts of a 2021 law that restricted voting by mail and the use of drop boxes. He briefly extended a voter registration deadline after a 2016 hurricane disrupted election preparations. He ruled that Florida’s clemency system to restore some felons’ voting rights while arbitrarily denying many others was unconstitutional before voters approved Amendment 4. He ended a Scott-era ban on early voting on college and university campuses, citing a “stark pattern of discrimination.”

Floridians have been forced to pay millions of dollars in legal fees to defend these terrible laws that would eviscerate democracy in Florida, but for the firewall.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.