Boom!
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/...
A federal judge this week made permanent an earlier, temporary ban on a 2011 law signed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) requiring welfare applicants to undergo drug tests.
According to the News Service of Florida, U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven on Tuesday ruled that the law is unconstitutional, writing that the urine tests mandated by the law violate the Fourth Amendment.
"[T]here is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied," Scriven wrote. - TPM, 1/2/14
Here's a little more info:
http://www.rawstory.com/...
Reuters reported in 2011 that — during the short time it was allowed to proceed before courts put a stop to it — the testing found a much lower rate of drug use among applicants for public assistance than in the population at large. Less than two percent of applicants tested positive for drugs.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that around eight percent of the general population ages 12 and older report using illicit drugs. The high cost of testing applicants and low rate of denial of benefits ultimately meant that Scott’s plan cost the state more to implement than it saved.
Right-wing legislators have pushed similar laws through in other states, including Georgia, which is currently watching the outcome of the Florida case before proceeding with its own plan to test welfare recipients.
Grant Smith, policy manager of the Drug Policy Alliance, told the New York Times that Tuesday’s ruling is a milestone.
“This new ruling should give pause,” he said, to legislators who favor this type of testing. “We have seen a number of proposals continue to be put forward across the country, but the writing is on the wall that requiring people to submit to drug testing for no reason other than being poor and in need of assistance is not going to pass constitutional muster. It’s not fair, it’s not cost effective, and it’s unreasonable.” - Raw Story, 1/1/14
Of course Scott is standing by his drug testing law and is going to fight for it:
http://www.ringoffireradio.com/...
Stubbornly, Scott said that he would file an appeal to the Orlando judge’s ruling. Welfare drug testing was a large part of Scott’s platform. He defends it by saying it was designed to prevent children from being raised in homes by drug users. His lawyers said that TANF recipients are a “special interest” exception to the 4th Amendment. However, denying federal aid to such families would only further harm children as there would be no supplement to purchase food.
“Any illegal drug use in a family is harmful and even abusive to a child. We should have a zero tolerance policy for illegal drug use in families — especially those families who struggle to make ends meet and need welfare assistance to provide for their children,” Scott said in a statement.
The drug test law also extends to state employees and has inspired lawsuits against Scott. In June 2011, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit on behalf of state workers against Scott alleging an overreach in his powers and invasion of privacy. That same year, the ACLU filed another lawsuit on behalf of Navy veteran, college student, and single father Luis Lebron.
Upon applying for TANF benefits, Lebron was ordered to submit to urinalysis but refused because it violated his constitutional rights he said. The court ruled in Lebron’s favor as Circuit Judge Rosemary Barkett said that the state failed to prove any “special” or “immediate” need for the law. As statistics have shown, the percentage of TANF applicants who give a positive result is very low.
The law was only active from July 2011 and October 2011. The Department of Children and Families reported that during that time, 2.6 percent of 4,068 Florida TANF applicants gave a positive-result drug test. And in most cases, the positive result was only for marijuana. - Ring Of Fire, 1/2/14
Scott thinks defending this law might help his re-election chances which aren't looking good right now:
http://www.baynews9.com/...
A glimpse at a Bay News 9/Tampa Bay Times/AM 820 News exclusive poll may give a small window at why just 23 percent of those poll said Scott is doing a good or excellent job as governor. Forty-four percent rated Scott’s performance as governor not so good or poor.
It has been three years since Scott, a little-known former health care executive, became Florida’s 45th governor. He was a Tea Party favorite, pledging to cut taxes and shrink Florida’s government, and his biggest goal was to create jobs: a pledged 700,000 in seven years.
Now, three years later, Scott has a record, and that record is getting mixed reviews from likely voters.
The poll asked Hillsborough and Pinellas voters how they would rate the governor’s overall job performance.
Only five percent say the governor has done an excellent job. Eighteen percent of those polled said he has done a good job and 28 percent said Scott has been an average governor.
And, underscoring his challenge in 2014, 13 percent think Scott’s job performance is not so good and 31 percent call it poor.
The message could be that in a part of the state that could make or break the governor’s hopes of winning re-election, only a quarter of likely voters are giving him high marks.
The poll numbers weren’t much better among a key demographic: Voters age 55 and over. More than a third (37 percent) of the 55-and over Hillsborough and Pinellas voters polled said Scott is doing a poor job.
The popularity problem is nothing new for Governor Scott as he has grappled with it during his entire time in office. - Bay News 9, 1/2/14
Meanwhile, Scott's likely Democratic opponent, Charlie Crist (D. FL), has been going after Scott's over raising the minimum wage:
http://www.saintpetersblog.com/...
In a new op-ed from Charlie Crist, Gov. Rick Scott is wrong — about the economy, the minimum wage and Florida in general.
Citing a 2010 incident, which took place shortly after Scott took office, the newly elected governor did not know Florida’s minimum wage. That is not a good thing, Crist says, especially for the leader of a state knee-deep in the Great Recession.
Add to that the “disappointment” Scott will feel when the state’s minimum wage increases to $7.93 on Jan. 1, 2014, despite repeated objections.
Crist reminds readers that although the state is rebounding economically, the hard times are not quite over yet for everyone. Many Floridians — from food service to retail workers — still feel the pinch of the “global economic collapse.” They are the people left behind as the financial pendulum swings in the Sunshine State. - Saint Peters Blog, 12/31/13
And it looks like Crist is trying to make amends with Florida's LGBT community:
http://www.lgbtqnation.com/...
In an extraordinary interview, Florida’s former Republican Governor Charlie Crist has apologized for having supported efforts to ban on same-sex marriage on the ballot in that state in 2008.
“I’m sorry I did that. It was a mistake. I was wrong. Please forgive,” said Crist, in an interview with Watermark, an LGBT news organization in Florida.
Crist was the Republican governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011. Crist is currently running for the Democratic nomination for governor, saying that his former political party “went nuts.”
But Watermark publisher Tom Dyer, who conducted the interview December 17, didn’t let Crist off the hook. He noted Crist also supported limiting marriage to heterosexual couples when Crist ran for senator in 2006 and that he expressed a belief that children who need to be adopted would be best off in “traditional” heterosexual homes.
“When you look back at the circumstances, one could come to the conclusion that your shifts in opinion were either politically expedient…” said Dyer.
“They were. They were. And it was wrong,” said Crist, interrupting. “That’s what I’m telling you. And I’m sorry.”
Nadine Smith, chief executive officer of Equality Florida, said she was “glad to see someone who has done harm publicly pledge to work to repair the damage.” - LGBTQ Nation, 1/2/14
Crist cited President Obama's evolving views on marriage equality when discussing this issue. To his credit, Crist has also urged a state representative who is sponsoring a bill to create a domestic partnership registry in Florida to “go for marriage.”
I for one am happy about the news coming from Florida, both Scott's recent defeat and both Crist's support for raising the minimum wage and for marriage equality. Florida is going to be an expensive race and Scott is going to spend big to dupe voters. If you would like to get involved or donate to Crist's campaign, you can do so here:
http://www.charliecrist.com/