(Photo
by
Ronda
Churchill/Getty
Images)
Now
that
Florida
Governor
Ron
DeSantis
broke
up
with
Mickey
Mouse,
he
celebrated
the
Fourth
of
July
in
his
second
favorite
place:
in
a
courtroom
getting
spanked
by
a
federal
judge.
The
occasion
of
the
latest
paddling
was
a
pair
of
modifications
to
Florida’s
election
law
designed
to
“secure”
elections
by
making
it
more
difficult
to
register
people
to
vote.
To
wit,
the
challenged
provisions
would
bar
non-citizens
from
participating
in
voter
registration
drives
and
impose
criminal
penalties
and
a
possible
$50,000
fine
on
registration
organizations
which
retain
information
about
the
voters
they
sign
up.
Sighing
over
“Florida’s
latest
assault
on
the
right
to
vote,”
Judge
Mark
Walker
noted
that
“the
challenged
provisions
exemplify
something
Florida
has
struggled
with
in
recent
years;
namely,
governing
within
the
bounds
set
by
the
United
States
Constitution.”
“When
state
government
power
threatens
to
spread
beyond
constitutional
bounds
and
reduce
individual
rights
to
ashes,
the
federal
judiciary
stands
as
a
firewall,”
he
warned,
appending
an
odd
footnote
on
the
definition
of
firewall,
before
dinging
DeSantis’s
oft-repeated
boasts
about
the
“freedom”
washing
over
his
state.
“The
Free
State
of
Florida
is
simply
not
free
to
exceed
the
bounds
of
the
United
States
Constitution,”
Judge
Walker
wrote.
As
to
the
first
provision,
Florida
argued
that
the
court
should
read
into
it
a
qualifier
written
in
invisible
ink
limiting
enforcement
to
undocumented
immigrants,
and
thus
saving
it
from
the
strict
scrutiny
reserved
for
laws
relating
to
national
origin.
Unsurprisingly,
this
reasoning
failed
to
persuade
the
Obama
appointee
who
regularly
rules
against
the
DeSantis
administration.
And
the
absence
of
a
ban
on
non-citizens
participating
in
any
other
aspect
of
elections
save
voter
registration
doomed
the
attempt
to
claim
an
exception
under
the
“political
function
test”
set
out
in
Bernal
v.
Fainter,
467
U.S.
216
(1984).
The
court
similarly
tossed
the
second
provision
as
being
void
for
vagueness.
“Here,
the
Florida
Legislature
has
drafted
a
criminal
statute
that
contemplates
some
individuals
retaining
some
information
for
some
undefined
purpose.
The
penalties
for
running
afoul
of
these
illusory
standards
include
arrest,
prosecution,
and
ultimately
a
felony
conviction,”
Judge
Walker
wrote.
The
attorney
general
vowed
that
the
executive
branch
would
somehow
amend
the
bill
to
make
it
not
illegal
if
the
court
would
simply
hold
off
on
ruling.
But
the
court
was
not
impressed
by
the
promise
to
scribble
notes
in
the
margin
of
a
legislatively
enacted
statute,
perhaps
by
dint
of
an
enforcement
memo
pinky
swearing
to
only
arrest
bad
guys.
“Simply
put,
neither
the
Department
nor
this
Court
is
permitted
to
rewrite
section
97.0575(7)
to
cure
its
vagueness,”
Judge
Walker
scoffed,
adding
that
“this
indiscernible
standard
lends
itself
to
arbitrary
enforcement.”
Noting
the
holiday,
the
court
finished
with
a
paean
to
the
patriotic
American
virtue
of
exercising
the
franchise:
Tomorrow,
Floridians
across
the
state
will
commemorate
our
Nation’s
birthday.
They
will
endure
the
heat
of
the
Florida
summer
to
celebrate
the
Fourth
of
July
with
family
and
friends
at
barbecues
and
picnics.
They
will
gather
with
their
communities
at
public
parks
for
music
and
fireworks.
They
will
cheer
and
sweat
at
parades
and
block
parties.
And
amid
these
patriotic
festivities,
some
may
feel
moved,
for
the
first
time,
to
embrace
their
solemn
privilege
as
citizens
by
registering
to
vote.In
a
land
that
professes
deliverance
of
the
“tired,”
the
“poor,”
the
“huddled
masses
yearning
to
breathe
free,”
[plaintiffs]
encourage
those
who
join
us
as
citizens
to
also
join
in
citizenship’s
highest
right
and
cardinal
task:
voting.
We
have
“a
Republic”
only
if
we
“keep
it”;
our
government
remains
“of,”
“by,”
and
“for
the
people”
only
if
the
people
are
heard.
And
to
vote
is
to
lift
one’s
voice
and
sing
in
our
vast,
clamoring
chorus
of
democracy.
And
then
he
shitcanned
yet
another
DeSantis
statute
for
being
an
un-American
attack
on
democracy
in
service
of
him
getting
gutted
like
a
fish
in
the
Iowa
primary.
FLORIDA
STATE
CONFERENCE
OF
BRANCHES
AND
YOUTH
UNITS
OF
THE
NAACP
v.
BYRD
[Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
writes
about
law
and
politics
and
appears
on
the Opening
Arguments podcast.