FloridaPolitics by Peter Schorsch

January 25, 2018

A proposed Constitution Revision Commission (CRC) amendment on “privacy” for the 2018 ballot could unravel protections guaranteed to Floridians, according to one of the lawmakers who wrote the state’s 1980 privacy amendment.

The proposal, sponsored by Constitution Revision Commissioner John Stemberger and drafted by former Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Bell, would add 10 words to the privacy provision: “with respect to privacy of information and the disclosure thereof.”

It’s drawn heat from groups such as the First Amendment Foundation and the ACLU of Florida, and Stemberger has attempted to brush aside those concerns by saying it would simply “require Florida courts to interpret the privacy clause in the manner intended by its original drafters and the people who adopted it.”

But Jon Mills, a University of Florida law professor, former lawmaker, and 1998 CRC member, said in a report sent to the CRC Thursday that Proposition 22 would lead to more “government intrusion” in Floridians lives. [READ MORE]