Civil rights groups, state drop legal dispute over DeSantis’ ‘Anti-Riot’ law • Florida Phoenix

Oct 17, 2024

Gov. Ron DeSantis fields a questions from reporters during a news conference in Winter Haven on Aug. 28, 2024. (Screenshot via the governor’s X livestream)

The lawsuit civil rights groups filed against Gov. Ron DeSantis over the 2021 law imposing harsher penalties for protesters inciting violence is officially over.

The parties agreed Wednesday to drop the suit, which challenged the 2021 “Anti-Riot Act.” Civil rights groups, such as the Florida State Conference of the NAACP, argued that the law passed following the 2020 George Floyd protests against police brutality chilled the First Amendment rights of protesters.

Each side will pay its own legal costs.

This latest development came after a panel of federal judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit allowed Florida to temporarily enforce the law. They cited a Florida Supreme Court opinion that the law didn’t apply to peaceful protesters who happened to be with a crowd that turned violent.

The ACLU of Florida, which helped litigate the case on behalf of the plaintiffs, celebrated the ruling from the appellate court on Oct. 7.

“Today’s decision reaffirms important legal protections that will benefit anyone who wants to take a public stand to demand racial justice, as well as all Floridians who want to peacefully demonstrate for what they believe in without fear of reprisal,” Daniel Tilley, the ACLU of Florida’s legal director, wrote in a statement to Florida Phoenix.

Florida’s NAACP chapter, Dream Defenders, Black Collective Inc., Chainless Change Inc., and Black Lives Matter Alliance Broward brought the suit against the state over the law the Florida Legislature passed the spring after protests in response to Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis Police Department officers.

by Jackie Llanos, Florida Phoenix October 16, 2024

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Jackie is a recent graduate of the University of Richmond. She has interned at Nashville Public Radio, Virginia Public Media and Virginia Mercury.

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