Florida’s new laws: What they say, what they mean
When it comes to selling people on a new law or a public policy, language is everything. The words used by proponents may give one impression, but their effect may be the exact opposite of what they appear to mean — sometimes intentionally so. That seems to the case with several laws enacted by the legislature and recently signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Take Senate Bill 7072, which imposes a fine of $250,000 a day on social media companies for removing a candidate for statewide office from a social media platform. Every member of the legislature certainly understood that this was retaliation against Facebook and Twitter for “deplatforming” former President Donald Trump for spreading disinformation about the November election. Trump’s social media posts led to the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol in which his supporters tried to prevent the counting of the Electoral College votes by Congress. The social media companies did not want to carry posts that proposed or abetted the overthrow of America’s democratic practices by force and violence.
The governor and the Republican legislators (with one exception) touted this bill as protection for freedom of speech. The federal judge evaluating the constitutionality of the law noted that the free speech claim may make a good sound-bite, but does not reflect the state of the law. He issued a preliminary injunction preventing the law from taking effect. Contrary to the governor’s clever attempt to manipulate our language, freedom of speech falls on the side of the media companies, not a deplatformed candidate who wants to spread false information.
Another law, House Bill 5, the “Portraits of Patriotism Act,” requires the Florida’s Department of Education “to develop civic minded expectations for an upright citizenry” by a curriculum that includes discussions of “political ideologies that conflict with the principles of freedom and democracy.” The governor claimed that the legislation will address “the whitewashing of history,” and the language of the bill cited above makes the law sound positive. But, in fact, it does the opposite of promoting democratic freedoms, making it possible for politicians to impose their definitions of “freedom and democracy” and “upright citizenry” on teachers and students. Good education teaches young people how to think, and not, as in totalitarian countries, what to think.
A similar example is House Bill 233, which requires Florida colleges and universities to annually assess “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity.” Like the Senate bill discussed above, its rhetoric also sounds positive, like an expansion of learning. But in fact, by assessing “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” at state institutions of higher education the new law is more likely to usher in a regime that creates political control not only over what is taught, but also what may be discussed by students in a classroom.
How the ideological inclinations of professors are determined, what to do if professors assert, correctly, that their political views are no one’s business and refuse to participate in an ideological census, and how this information will be used, is not yet determined. The language “intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity” could easily lead one to believe that this is a step forward in promoting learning, but it is more likely to instill fear, conformity and silence, contravening the principles of academic freedom that differentiates American colleges and universities from the thought control in many other countries.
Then there is Senate Bill 2996 that prevents businesses, schools and local governments from requiring proof of vaccination against the COVID-19 virus. DeSantis issued an executive order banning “vaccine passports” and then got the legislature to enact a law that he claims, in Orwellian language, protects personal freedom and the choice not to wear a mask, refusing to get vaccinated and not having proof of vaccination.
However one may understand “personal freedom,” it does not give one the right to infect and perhaps even kill other people with the COVID-19 virus. And the results of the governor’s far-fetched view that any restriction on my behavior to protect others violates my personal freedom are apparent: a dramatic spike in reported cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
At this writing (July 22), Florida has the second highest rate of new covid infections in the country. Compare DeSantis’ language with his continued intransigence in refusing to mandate or even allow local communities to use measures that are nationally and internationally proven to combat the virus – a strategy of our state government that is resulting in the unnecessary deaths of thousands more Floridians.
Robert Hilliard, Ph.D., of Sanibel, is an author and a former media professional, federal government official, and college dean and professor.
Howard L. Simon, Ph. D., of Sanibel, served as executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan from 1974-1997 and executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida from 1997-2018.