State Responds: “Log Rolling is OK”

The State was quick to respond to the Leon County judge’s decision to remove Amendment 8 from the ballot. Attorney General Pam Bondi filed a brief to the Florida Supreme Court to reject proposals to remove six amendments, including Amendment 8, to Florida’s constitution from the ballot. A specific appeal to the LWVF case was also filed.

The Tallahassee circuit court rendered a decision today that Amendment 8 was misleading the public by combining multiple proposals and using vague language. There are other amendments that use the same tactic.

Separate cases have been filed arguing that six of the proposed constitutional amendments also combined multiple measures so that voters would have to approve all proposals or none in any given amendment.

Bondi stated that combining multiple proposals into one did not violate the single subject rule. This rule, she contends, does not apply to the legislature or to the Constitutional Revision Commission(CRC) because both provide public hearings. The CRC supposedly has safeguards against deception, but the League and other public interest groups have decried the inability of the CRC to follow its own procedures.

Read the State’s argument here.

What the Supreme Court decides is important to the transparency of our political system. If the decision is to let the public vote on these duplicitous measures, then November 6th becomes a critical date for the future of Florida’s educational system. Will we move forward with dismantling our public schools? The voters will decide. They must be well informed.

Posted in Charter School Management, Constitutionality, Florida, Florida House, Florida Senate, League Positions, Public Education.

2 Comments

  1. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4619603-Wells-Amendment-8-Opinion.html

    Former Chief Justice of Florida Supreme Court, Charles T. Wells (1994-2009), explained why he believes Amendment 8 is misleading and deceptive in an eight page opinion he sent to the League. He carefully examined Amendment 8 and said it does not meet the exacting standards required for amending the Florida Constitution. The first fatal defect in Amendment 8 is that the amendment packages three amendments on three distinct subjects which will have unrelated effects on education in Florida. A voter is made to vote for or against the three amendments in the package even though the voter may be for one or two of the proposals, but against one or two of the other ones.

    The packaging of three revisions to the Constitution in Amendment 8 is a blatant example of “logrolling”. Logrolling is defined as a practice by which a constitutional amendment is proposed which contains unrelated provisions, some of which electors might wish to support in order to get an otherwise disfavored provision passed. “Logrolling” in constitutional amendments placed in referendum ballots has been repeatedly condemned by the Florida Supreme Court”.

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