FL: Gov. Ron DeSantis Signs Controversial Bill Restricting Protesters into Law

[Frodo]

If you care about your First Amendment rights, and want to know what a Ron DeSantis administration is going to be like if he wins the presidency in 2024, just look at Florida:

https://twitter.com/SunSentinel/status/1380672161048895488
The Florida ACLU and League of Women Voters have condemned the bill in question.  

[Frodo]

DeSantis would not have the congressional votes to enact this through congress, unless the filibuster is abolished.

Which shouldn't be insurmountable if his heart is in it.  All he needs to do to get bipartisan support is to raise the specter of the January 6th insurrection to bring enough congressional Democrats on board to overcome the filibuster (assuming Mitch McConnell keeps it as is if the GOP get back control of the Senate).  And of course we know Trump and his supporters will support the legislation to crack down on Black Lives Matter protesters and Antifa.

Restricting protests is a double-edged sword -both sides can benefit from as well as be harmed by it.   

[Frodo]

After having been passed in the Senate in a party-line vote, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed the anti-protest bill into law:

Florida governor signs controversial 'pro-law enforcement' law cracking down on riots

Exercise your First Amendment right in the state of Florida at your own peril. 

[Frodo]

B-b-b-b-but I thought the Democrats were the ones taking away our First Amendment rights!!!???

Yep, this guy sure is much more “reasonable” than Trump.

I have every confidence that the ACLU and other parties will have this law struck down by the Supreme Court before long.  After all, this court has proven to be such a stalwart defender of the First Amendment that they even claimed political donations by corporations are a form of free speech that should not be infringed upon.  

Given that precedent, what hope does this law have of surviving scrutiny?  

[Frodo]

What does the bill actually prohibit?  Here in Seattle we've had to deal with near-daily protests, sometimes they don't even have an actual purpose it's just protesting for the sake of protesting.  And they cause tons of property damage, hide their identities, attack businesses and random people, and most notoriously shut down freeways.  The shutting down of freeways became a routine thing last summer when WSDOT would just shut down the highway for a couple miles around the protest line and redirect traffic until they went away.

I would support a bill that put a stop to all that crap.  I'm assuming since this is the awful state of Florida that this bill does a lot more and restricts totally reasonable things.

You can get the full text here:
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/1/?Tab=BillText

It's a large host of measures, each of which can individually have a case made for it, and overall the whole thing could be said to make a sort of draconian sense.

For me, there is an obvious question as to whether or not the changes will truly be enforced evenhandedly. I suspect (though I obviously cannot prove) that part of the intent is to use the new provisions as harshly as possible on groups opposed to Republican rule, while going lighter on those in support of it.

The biggest catch is that even if it is enforced with perfect fairness, in a nascent authoritarian regime, the biggest beneficiary of restrictions on public protest is the authoritarian regime itself.

We all know they won't be. 

[Frodo]

If Democrats are smart, they should keep this law in the news as much as possible, casting Gov. Ron DeSantis as an enemy of the First Amendment and a tyrant-in-waiting.  This law which isn't that much different from the measures being implemented by Communist authorities in Hong Kong (consider it the first of many steps), should be draped around his neck like a millstone when he runs for re-election in 2022, and for President in 2024.  It should define him in the eyes of Americans, and should be the first thing they think about when his name is mentioned.  They should ask themselves whether they want this man to represent the United States in its fight against authoritarianism abroad if he has proven so willing to import it into the state of Florida in the form of this godforsaken law that everyone knows will be used disproportionately against anyone who doesn't align with the Republican Party.  

[Frodo]

The Constitution has won, for now:

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1436056324345892869