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Tag: DeSantis

  • Ron DeSantis moves to permanently ban Covid mandates in Florida

    Ron DeSantis moves to permanently ban Covid mandates in Florida

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    Florida’s Republican governor Ron DeSantis has announced a proposal to permanently ban Covid mandates in the state.

    In a press release issued earlier this week, DeSantis said that he has proposed legislation to “make permanent Covid freedoms in Florida”, adding that the “strong pro-freedom, anti-mandate action will permanently protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to Covid vaccine mandates, protects parents’ rights, and institutes additional protections that prevent discrimination based on Covid vaccine status”.

    The proposal includes permanently banning mask requirements throughout the state, prohibiting vaccine and mask requirements in schools, prohibiting Covid passports in the state, and prohibiting employers from hiring or firing based on Covid vaccines, all in attempts to protect Floridians from the “biomedical security state”.

    The proposal also claims to protect “medical freedom of speech” by promising to protect medical professionals’ freedom of speech, the right to disagree with the “preferred narrative of the medical community,” as well as the religious views of medical professionals.

    “When the world lost its mind, Florida was a refuge of sanity, serving strongly as freedom’s lynchpin,” DeSantis said in the announcement of his proposal. “These measures will ensure Florida remains this way and will provide landmark protections for free speech for medical practitioners.”

    The recent proposal follows DeSantis’s repeated criticisms of Covid mandates. In 2021, DeSantis signed a series of measures that sought to protect Floridians from pandemic mandates set forth by local governments, which he called “unscientific, unnecessary directives”.

    Florida’s surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, supported DeSantis’s proposal, saying: “As a health sciences researcher and physician, I have personally witnessed accomplished scientists receive threats due to their unorthodox positions.”

    “However, many of these positions have proven to be correct, as we’ve all seen over the past few years. All medical professionals should be encouraged to engage in scientific discourse without fearing for their livelihoods or their careers,” he added.

    Last year, Ladapo announced that Florida will formally recommend against Covid vaccinations for healthy children.

    “We’re kind of scraping at the bottom of the barrel, particularly with healthy kids, in terms of actually being able to quantify with any accuracy and any confidence the even potential of benefit,” he said.

    The announcement contradicted guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the Food and Drug Administration.

    Last December, DeSantis petitioned the Florida supreme court to have a grand jury investigate whether Floridians were misled by Covid vaccine manufacturers over the shots’ potential side effects.

    The court granted DeSantis’s petition, and the grand jury will convene for a year before forming a decision.

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    #Ron #DeSantis #moves #permanently #ban #Covid #mandates #Florida
    ( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )

  • Judge rules DeSantis’ ouster of prosecutor was unconstitutional but upholds suspension

    Judge rules DeSantis’ ouster of prosecutor was unconstitutional but upholds suspension

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    prosecutor suspended florida 67424

    Hinkle rejected DeSantis’ argument.

    “Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended elected State Attorney Andrew H. Warren, ostensibly on the ground that Mr. Warren had blanket policies not to prosecute certain kinds of cases,” read the order. “The allegation was false.”

    Hinkle said Warren’s office had a policy of using “prosecutorial discretion” in all cases, including those involving abortion.

    “Any reasonable investigation would have confirmed this,” Hinkle wrote.

    The judge conceded, though, that he didn’t have the authority to reinstate Warren to his position.

    DeSantis’ office hailed the ruling was a victory, focusing primarily on Hinkle upholding Warren’s suspension.

    “Today, Judge Hinkle upheld @GovRonDeSantis’ decision to suspend Andrew Warren from office for neglect of duty and incompetence,” DeSantis’ Communications Director Taryn Fenske said.

    DeSantis replaced Warren with Susan Lopez, who previously served as a judge in the Tampa area.

    During a brief press conference Friday after the ruling, Warren declined to say what his next move would be but told reporters “this is not over.”

    He said the governor should now rescind his suspension and let him return to office.

    “Let’s see if the governor actually believes in the rule of law. … let’s see what kind of man the governor actually is,” Warren said.

    DeSantis began eyeing Warren after the governor in late 2021 asked his public safety czar, Larry Keefe, to see whether Florida had any “reform prosecutors,” a term generally associated with progressive prosecutors who pursue criminal justice reforms. When he ran for Hillsborough state attorney, Warren vowed to reduce recidivism, among other things.

    “Mr. Keefe made some calls to acquaintances and quickly identified Mr. Warren as the Florida prosecutor who had taken the mantle of a reform prosecutor,” read Hinkle’s opinion.

    In his ruling, Hinkle also highlighted testimony from Fenske centered on how the communications office handled the announcement that DeSantis was suspending Warren. The night before DeSantis held the Aug. 4 high-profile press conference to suspend Warren through executive order, former administration press secretary Christina Pushaw tweeted: “Get some rest tonight” and “[p]repare for the liberal media meltdown of the year.”

    During trial, Fenske testified that Pushaw was admonished for the tweets, but Hinkle says he “does not credit” the testimony because Pushaw was tweeting about the suspension again the next day.

    “Ms. Pushaw tweeted an equally partisan, unprofessional message about this the next night, after purportedly being admonished,” he wrote. “And in any event, any admonishment was about tone, not substance.”

    As justification for the suspension, DeSantis’ legal team also brought up former GOP Gov. Rick Scott’s 2017 decision to reassign death penalty-eligible cases from Aramis Ayala, the former state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties, after she said she would never pursue the death penalty even in cases that “absolutely deserve the death penalty.”

    In his ruling, Hinkle noted no one ever suggested removing Ayala from office, and that Warren never made similar statements.

    “Quite the contrary,” Hinkle wrote. “[Warren] said repeatedly that discretion would be exercised at every state of the case.”

    The issue now could go before the Florida Senate, which is responsible for removing from office officials who have been suspended by the governor.

    The issue is currently on hold in the Senate until the legal proceedings are resolved, including any potential appeals.

    Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R-Naples) sent a memo to her members Friday morning after the Hinkle ruling telling them the issue isn’t completed.

    “As such, the matter of Mr. Warren’s reinstatement or removal from office by the Florida Senate appellate remedies have been exhausted,” she wrote.

    Gary Fineout contributed to this report.

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    #Judge #rules #DeSantis #ouster #prosecutor #unconstitutional #upholds #suspension
    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )