Florida

Five years ago the city declared an area blighted, although homeowners disagreed with that description ... The designation made it eligible for condemnation and development by a private firm ... The city last year approved a $2.4 million project for a 400-acre area now occupied by 1,700 homes and businesses. Last May it agreed to let Viking develop the area for homes, condos, fancy stores, and yacht slips. The city pledged to use its power of eminent domain ... That led to three homeowner lawsuits ... The day after the agreement was made, Gov. Jeb Bush signed a bill prohibiting eminent domain for redevelopment.

Similar suppressions have occurred during Bush visits to Florida. A recent St. Petersburg Times editorial noted, "At a Bush rally at Legends Field in 2001, three demonstrators—two of whom were grandmothers—were arrested for holding up small handwritten protest signs outside the designated zone. And last year, seven protesters were arrested when Bush came to a rally at the USF Sun Dome. They had refused to be cordoned off into a protest zone hundreds of yards from the entrance ..." One of the arrested protesters was a 62-year-old man holding up a sign, "War is good business. Invest your sons."

In the Florida proceeding, Michael Schiavo requested the judge to permit him to withdraw the water and feeding tube that has been keeping his wife Terri alive for many years. Terri's parents opposed the action, requesting the court to prevent Michael from withdrawing the tube and thereby letting their daughter die ... the judge found, as a fact, that Terri Schiavo had orally declared ... the equivalent of a "living will" ... The parents appealed ... and the appellate courts ruled against them, affirming the trial court's judgment. This case will undoubtedly go down as one of the most litigated cases in Florida history.

Gov. Lawton Chiles has shown little interest in enforcing [the Medicaid law] against [ski manufacturers] ... In March 1995 he issued an executive order directing state officials to pursue only those industries "responsible for disease and death caused by tobacco products and ... by the sale and consumption of illegal drugs." Unless we can envision a court compelling the Medellin cartel to reimburse Florida for crack-related Medicaid costs, the tobacco companies are the real targets. Yet, in principle and in fact, Florida's other industries could be on the hook in time ...

Gore will win the election if Florida's electoral votes do not get counted. So, his goal is not to get any more ballots counted. ... This is why the Florida legislature is preparing to meet next week, just in the case of court-imposed gridlock. ... To have the Florida legislature make the final decision would be a great thing for the United States. ... [Lewis] did not mention that this legalistic tactic would disenfranchise the Florida voters who voted for Bush and all the other voters who voted for Bush nationally. He did not mention that by annulling the state's 25 votes and electing Gore, this tactic would de-legitimize any Gore administration.

If firearms increased violence and crime, Florida’s murder rate should not have been falling since the introduction, seven years ago, of a law that makes it easier for ordinary citizens to get permits to carry concealed handguns. Yet the murder rate has remained the same or fallen every year since the law was enacted. ... Self-defense does work. ... In Florida, forcible rapes sharply declined in Orlando and other cities after police trained women to use guns.

Lott: ... Take the case where violent crime rates are rising right up to the point when the [right-to-carry] law goes into effect and falling afterward, [like an] inverted V. If I were to take the average crime rate before the law goes into effect and the average afterward, where the point of the V is when the law changed, they're going to be the same. Does that mean the law had no impact? When you drop Florida from the sample, [the results] look more like this inverted V ... So I would argue that it strengthens the results, if what you care about is the change in direction.