TALLAHASSEE – A new Florida law is forcing some general public officers to select involving their working day employment or holding office environment.
The evaluate, which took outcome in excess of the weekend, prohibits community officers from operating as lobbyists whilst holding public office environment. It also bars condition and community elected officers from lobbying their point out agencies or workplaces for six years right after leaving office environment, up from a earlier two-yr ban.
The new regulation now has compelled some public officials to resign. Among them are a Miami Shores council member and a board member of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, according to CBS4 information companion The Miami Herald.
The law applied a condition constitutional modification that was accredited by Florida voters in 2018.
5 elected officers in Miami-Dade, Palm Seashore, and Leon counties have challenged the new law in a federal lawsuit, but the choose in the circumstance very last week denied a request to temporarily block the regulation from going into influence until the court could rule on its legality.
In their lawsuit, the general public officials claimed that lobbying is part of the democratic course of action and facilitates the exchange of information involving general public officers and the men and women they stand for.
“It is for this really rationale that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution expressly safeguards the appropriate to petition the govt for a redress of grievances, along with the rights to freedom of speech and liberty of assembly,” the lawsuit said.
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