The Tampa Bay Times reports:
A federal judge has rejected — at least for now — a lawsuit challenging a controversial new law that restricts instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation in public schools. U.S. District Judge Allen Winsor issued a 25-page order dismissing the case, finding that plaintiffs did not show they had legal standing. Winsor, however, said the plaintiffs can file a revised lawsuit as they seek to block the restrictions.
The LGBTQ advocacy groups Equality Florida and Family Equality, students, parents and teachers filed the lawsuit in March and an amended version in May. The lawsuit alleged, in part, that the law violated First Amendment and due-process rights. “The principal problem is that most of plaintiffs’ alleged harm is not plausibly tied to the law’s enforcement so much as the law’s very existence,” Winsor, who was appointed to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump, wrote.
Read the full article. Other lawsuits are in the works.
My latest: A Florida federal judge ruled that a high-profile lawsuit challenging the state’s so-called Don’t Say Gay law was legally deficient & tossed it out. The Trump appointee gave Equality Florida 14 days to file a possible new suit https://t.co/r3PuUPqcEp via @bbgequality
— Erik Larson (@eelarson) October 4, 2022
“We are currently assessing our options,” prominent civil rights attorney Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Equality Florida, said Monday in a phone call. “No matter what we do, we’re not giving up the fight”
— Erik Larson (@eelarson) October 4, 2022