Florida legislature and DeSantis want to rewrite First Amendment.

[hay rick]

The Florida Senate used a parliamentary maneuver to advance CS/HB 1, the "anti-riot" bill. DeSantis concocted the bill in response to the George Floyd demonstrations last year. One part of the bill that has received little notice is that it creates an affirmative defense for anyone accused of attacking a person participating in a "riot." The bill is a wish list of authoritarian anti-demonstration decrees, and the media is content to let this particular one get lost in the middle of the steaming pile of outrages. This bill would protect Kyle Rittenhouse and James Fields, and is a nice complement to Florida's pioneering Stand Your Ground legislation that protected George Zimmerman.

The bill text can be found here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2021/1/BillText/e1/PDF. More discussion on this here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100215274496

[lpbk2713]

1. "Hey about that First Amendment ...

"Uh ... I just came up with this Executive Order that um ... "

[hay rick]

2. Trump normalized this crap. DeSantis tries this with the expectation of no adverse consequences.

This particular bill will probably lose at least some of of its bite in court, but that is a protracted and uncertain process that must wind its way through courts stacked with Republican-appointed judges. If you value our participatory democracy, you are living in dangerous times.