Defamation bills’ defeat only bright spot
By Bobby Block
FAF Executive Director
From the perspective of the First Amendment, the best thing about Florida’s 2023 legislative session is that it is now over.
On Friday morning, senators and representatives congratulated themselves for their slavish efforts to the governor’s agenda, packed up their bags and went home.
The annual 60-day get together of Florida’s lawmakers generated huge amounts of controversy, polarization and headlines, from support for six week abortion bans to weakening voting laws to expanding limits on gender discussion and sexuality to high schools to more fights with the Walt Disney Company.
But from our knothole here at the First Amendment Foundation, the 2023 session was especially notable as one of the worst for free speech, free press, open government and access to public records, which were once again eroded by a slew of exemptions.
Even before lawmakers debated the first batch of bills of the 2023 political season, Floridians’ constitutional right to speak and demonstrate took a hit when it was announced at the start of the session that the Department of Management Services changed the rules for demonstrations at the Capitol.