Friday, August 02, 2024

ANNALS OF DeSANTISTAN: Florida may have to pay businesses’ legal fees after Stop Woke ruling (Tampa Bay Times)

DeSANTIS will likely have to pay attorney fees on his unconstitutional "Stop WOKE Act" presuming to tell businesses what they can Our Flori-DUH Boy Governor, RONALD DION DeSANTIS, skill set embraces demagoguery, victim-shaming, mockery, marginalizing, other-izing, baby-talking,  whining, kvetching, lying, withholding evidence, wasting money and generally indulging in anti-social behavior associated with his sociopath idol, convicted felon ex-President DONALD JOHN TRUMP.  We reject DeSANTIS's works and pomps and look forward to the expiration of DeSANTIS's last term as Florida Governor.  Meanwhile, the nasty energumen is costing taxpayer money with all of his looney and unconstitutional laws.  Fascistic RONALD DION DeSANTIS's rote imitation of Nuremberg laws has largely failed, thanks to an independent judiciary.  From two Ivy League degrees to the Navy JAG Corps, what a waste of education and experience.  Our bogus bumptious Boy Governor has become a smarmy lickspittle for bigotry -- not a good look.  Prediction:  PACs will fund another failed Presidential campaign.  Corporate law firms will bid for his "services." Corporations like DeSANTIS for his slavish dedication to casuistry, coverups and loopholes for the wealth.  His Presidential run will likely come a cropper, once again. Truth is, nobody likes DeSANTIS, not ever Trump. From Tampa Bay Times:

Florida may have to pay businesses’ legal fees after Stop Woke ruling

A judge sided with two Tampa Bay businesses in ruling against part of the law that covered race-related training. 
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7, known as the "Stop WOKE" act, in Hialeah Gardens in 2022.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 7, known as the "Stop WOKE" act, in Hialeah Gardens in 2022. [ DANIEL A. VARELA | Miami Herald ]
Published Yesterday|Updated Yesterday
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Florida could face paying attorney fees for businesses that successfully challenged part of a 2022 law that Gov. Ron DeSantis dubbed the Stop Woke Act.

Attorneys for the businesses Tuesday filed an 11-page motion that asks a judge to determine that the plaintiffs are entitled to recover legal fees and costs. The motion came four days after Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted a permanent injunction against part of the law, officially named the Individual Freedom Act, that sought to restrict businesses from addressing race-related issues in workplace training.

The permanent injunction came after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this year upheld a preliminary injunction that Walker issued in 2022. Walker and the appeals court said the restrictions violated First Amendment rights.

Tuesday’s motion for attorney fees described the plaintiffs’ success in the case as “resounding.” The motion seeks to recover fees for district court and appeals court proceedings.

“Plaintiffs did not just achieve some benefit but rather achieved the key benefit they sought in bringing this suit: enjoining enforcement of the unconstitutional Stop Woke Act,” the motion said.

The workplace training part of the law listed eight race-related concepts and said that a required training program or other activity that “espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels such individual (an employee) to believe any of the following concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin.”

The law was challenged by Primo Tampa LLC, a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream franchisee; Honeyfund.com Inc., a Clearwater-based technology company that provides wedding registries; and Chevara Orrin and her company, Collective Concepts LLC. Orrin and her company provide consulting and training to employers about issues such as diversity, equity and inclusion.

If Walker decides that the plaintiffs are entitled to attorney fees, the amount would then be determined.

Walker also has separately issued a preliminary injunction against part of the law that would restrict the way race-related concepts can be taught in universities. A panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court held a hearing in that case in June.


1 comment:

Nelson said...

Conservatives pay for conservative stupidity. Free state my ass.. it's a right wing police state where you're free to attend church and work for low wages OR go to the conservative Republican Hilton (jail.) Nothing free about what these right wing nut jobs do