News Service of Florida

Objecting to an attempt to speed up the case, attorneys for the state argued Friday “there is no reasonable likelihood” the Florida Supreme Court will rule in a congressional redistricting battle in time for the 2024 elections.The attorneys for Secretary of State Cord Byrd and the Legislature pushed back against a request by voting-rights groups and other plaintiffs for the Supreme Court to expedite the handling of a challenge to a ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal. That ruling upheld a congressional redistricting plan that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through the Legislature in 2022.

The Senate sponsor of the monuments bill, Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, argued that his bill and intentions have been mischaracterized as protecting the Confederacy.

Florida’s annual 60-day legislative session reached its halfway point Wednesday. The top 10 big issues in the session range from the budget to education, insurance to health care.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday supported legislation that seeks to prevent homeless people from sleeping in public places such as streets, sidewalks and parks, as a Senate committee moved forward with the proposal.“I think what we're envisioning is providing some support for counties for additional sheltering, providing some financial support for both substance abuse (programs) and mental health,” DeSantis said during a news conference in Miami Beach, as he stood behind a podium that said: “Don't Allow Florida to become San Francisco.”

Amid what one critic called “an ongoing campaign to make Florida uninhabitable and unsafe for transgender individuals,” Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration quietly reversed a policy that allowed Floridians to obtain driver’s licenses that reflected their gender identity.Robert Kynoch, deputy executive director of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, on Friday sent a memo outlining the changes to county tax collectors, who process driver’s licenses and state identification cards. The memo said that allowing people to change their gender on licenses and ID cards runs afoul of state law because gender “has historically been understood as a synonym for ‘sex,’ which is determined by innate and immutable biological and genetic characteristics.”

With the full House ready to take up a bill that would loosen work restrictions for 16- and 17-year-old youths, the Senate began moving forward Tuesday with a proposal that would not be as far-reaching.The Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee approved a proposal (SB 1596) that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work as late as midnight when school is scheduled the next day, a change from the current 11 p.m. limit.

A Senate committee Monday backed a proposal that would prevent counties and cities from allowing people to sleep or camp on public property without permits.Bill sponsor Jonathan Martin, R-Fort Myers, called his proposal (SB 1530) a way to address a mental-health crisis in the state and to assist the “chronically homeless.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday raised legal concerns about the “breadth” of a bill that seeks to prevent children under age 16 from having social-media accounts. The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed the bill (HB 1), a priority of House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast.