In Florida, as in other states, parents finally are rising to oppose liberal politicians determined to indoctrinate children or otherwise compel them to do things contrary to parental wishes.
It is a matter of parental rights.
Fortunately for Florida parents, there is a law protecting parental rights, and a right to privacy in the Florida constitution.
It is an actual right, spelled out clearly — not one made up by judges like the right to privacy that existed only in the minds of liberal justices who wrote the federal law on abortion.
It says “Every natural person has the right to be let alone and free from governmental intrusion into the person’s private life except as otherwise provided herein. This section shall not be construed to limit the public’s right of access to public records and meetings as provided by law.”
It was the basis for a ruling from the 1st District Court of Appeal striking down a liberal judge’s decision upholding a countywide mask mandate in Alachua County. Other cases are erupting daily.
The DCA ruling, however, contained a dynamite statement:
“The right of privacy is a ‘fundamental’ one, expressly protected by the Florida Constitution, and ANY law that implicates it ‘is PRESUMPTIVELY unconstitutional,’ such that it must be subject to strict scrutiny and justified as the least restrictive means to serve a compelling governmental interest.”
All of the cases are not about masks, or health or pandemics. They are about individual liberty, which does not shrink just because germs are at large.
Politicians who run government schools in Florida, however, are flaunting the law by attempting to curtail liberty.
The applicable law is Florida Statute 1014.04, the “parental bill of rights,” which was enacted July 1.
Liberals believe politicians have the right to direct the lives of children, not their parents.
The issue is being misconstrued by the Democrat media. The governor’s order did not prohibit mask mandates.
Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order directing the health and education departments to advise local school boards not to violate any state law if they made any rules concerning masks for children.
Liberal school boards in seven counties, including Duval, decided to buck the Republican governor and violate the law.
A suit against the local school system is expected soon.
The liberal media got very excited when a liberal judge in Tallahassee decided to block the governor’s order and supplant DeSantis’s policy decision with his own, declaring a federal government bureaucracy to be the sole arbiter of the facts and law.
But that judge’s order, due to be entered soon, is deficient and will be overturned on appeal, lawyers tell Eye on Jacksonville confidently. The plaintiffs did not have standing. The order by the governor and actions of the state agencies clearly are policy decisions.
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran wrote the Duval County School Board saying he had begun an investigation and that the state might cut off the salaries of rogue school board members who do not follow the law.
The issue is not confined to government schools. Seven families also are suing Jacksonville’s Episcopal High School in Circuit Court over a mask mandate. That case is set for trial in October.
