DeSantis sued for 'riot bill'

[mia]

Civil-rights lawyers file federal suit against DeSantis over newly signed 'riot bill'

Civil-rights attorneys are challenging a new set of state laws that establish a crime of “mob intimidation” and enhance penalties for riot-related violence and looting, arguing in a federal lawsuit that the measures unconstitutionally “seek to arrest the peaceful expression of free speech.”

The challenge was filed Wednesday, two days after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the controversial package (HB 1), one of his top legislative priorities. The governor laid out a framework for the legislation in September in response to nationwide protests after the May 2020 death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Republican lawmakers gave final approval to the changes last week, ignoring objections by Democrats and civil-rights groups that predicted the proposal would be challenged in court. A nonprofit organization known as the Lawyers Matter Task Force and other plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in federal court in Orlando, naming as defendants DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Orange County Sheriff John Mina.

The laws, among other things, create a new felony crime of “aggravated rioting” that carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and a new crime of “mob intimidation,” which makes it unlawful “for a person, assembled with two or more other persons and acting with a common intent, to use force or threaten to use imminent force, to compel or induce, or attempt to compel or induce, another person to do or refrain from doing any act or to assume, abandon, or maintain a particular viewpoint against his or her will.”

Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article250851844.html
1

[malaise]

1. Good

Get thee to the greatest page

[Sinistrous]

2. I was recently asked if "I believed the dictate that DeSantis just signed."

I answered No. I cannot believe anyone is evil enough to approve such a travesty.

But here comes DeSantis to prove me wrong.

[PortTack]

3. Good news! This guy is such a frump wanna be...needs knocked down several notches

[2Gingersnaps]

4. Wow, how about they apply that Second Amendment absolutism to the First Amendment?

And then try their new toy on those Super Spreader rallies like the one where Ted Nugent picked up his Covid hoax.

[fwvinson]

5. So, the guy in the car, about to run down a few protesters,

has the right to kill or maim people with his car? Can I do the same? I'm sure DeSantis only sees left wing protests. What if it's a guns rights protest, or a right to life protest, or any number of right wing protests, Can I run them down? Asking for a friend.

[progressoid]

6. two people is a "mob" ???

[NHvet]

7. I was alwayts told, be careful for what you wish for,

Seems those that came up with this law didn't look too far past their hatred of others to see that it can be used against their own. So, at the next anti-abortion rally, or trump lovefest, or LGBTQ bashing gathering, or any other reich wing rally, all that attend can be jailed and given felonies for said crime of just being there, thus taking away their voting and gun owning rights? And, if someone disagrees with them and decides to mow them down with a vehicle while they are protesting, does that person driving the car get a Disney parade in their honor too?