Florida’s courts are the line of defense for our freedoms

The Florida Legislature’s 2026 Regular Session (and three Special Sessions) are great examples of Gideon J. Tucker’s famous warning:

“No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in Session.”

On July 1, more than a hundred new state laws will take effect, bringing the consequences of this year’s Legislative Sessions into even sharper focus. With so many consequential laws enacted each year, Floridians must be able to rely on the courts as a backstop against legislative overreach. Right now, important court challenges are underway against some key laws that put your rights and freedoms as a Floridian at serious risk.

One newly passed law raising serious constitutional concerns is HB 1471, a dangerous law that concentrates power in the hands of a few government officials to label organizations in Florida as “domestic terrorist organizations” without adequate due process, transparency, or sufficient safeguards to prevent political abuse.

This is an alarming expansion of state authority and risks undermining the very constitutional freedoms that elected officials are sworn to protect.

A truly free state of Florida would never allow this law, which civil liberties experts believe violates the First Amendment and threatens to chill protected speech and association, to take effect. Laws like HB 1471 illustrate why an independent judiciary is so important for protecting the rights of all Floridians.

Although it doesn’t take effect until 2027, another newly passed threat to Floridians’ freedoms is HB 991, which makes registering and casting a vote harder for any Florida voter who lacks easy access to a new, more restrictive list of citizenship documents. That includes older voters, low-income voters, naturalized citizens, citizens born at home, and women whose names changed after marriage or divorce. This law is likely unconstitutional and violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.

The property tax amendment that Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed through in a Special Session faces legal challenges by local officials, who claim the ballot language is confusing and deceitful. The proposed amendment will result in higher rents, cuts to critical local services, and a shift toward increased taxes and fees. A provision forcing new Florida residents to wait five years to receive the tax break could also be deemed unconstitutional.

DeSantis’ new, partisan-gerrymandered congressional maps are also in legal limbo. They represent an unconstitutional, partisan power grab by the Governor and Republican leadership who answered President Donald Trump’s demands to rig electoral maps for the benefit of their political party. In 2010, Florida voters rejected political maps drawn to benefit a political party by passing the Fair Districts Amendments to our state constitution. We’re hopeful that Florida’s judicial branch will ultimately uphold those citizen-passed reforms, even though that will not happen in time for this year’s elections.

The failure of Florida’s judiciary to stop these illegal, gerrymandered maps in time for this year’s election cycle highlights how Florida’s state courts have become increasingly politicized. Floridians would benefit from reforming the judicial appointment process to ensure that judges remain insulated from partisan politics and are not overly influenced by the executive branch or by political patronage.

The Florida Courts Matter Coalition, of which my organization is a member, understands the powerful impact the judiciary has on our daily lives and the importance of independent, fair, and qualified judges committed to upholding the Constitution and protecting Floridians’ freedoms. Now more than ever, we’re depending on the state judicial branch to reject these attacks on our freedoms.

Before you know it, legislators will be back at it, so it’s incumbent on every citizen to stay informed and engaged to ensure that our life, liberty, and property are safe.

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Mark Ferrulo is the Executive Director of Progress Florida, a member of the Florida Why Courts Matter Coalition.