Florida Law Limiting Citizens' Right to Dispute Challenged

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http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2003/2003-07-10-09.asp#anchor4

 

Florida Law Limiting Citizens' Right to Dispute Challenged

 

TALLAHASSEE, Florida, July 10, 2003 (ENS) - Attorneys for the nonprofit public

interest law firm Earthjustice opened their case today on behalf of two Florida

groups who are challenging a Florida law that restricts the rights of ordinary

citizens to dispute government decisions that affect the environment.

The bill at issue passed in the final hours of the last legislative session,

after being cobbled together with an unrelated bill that was likely to pass.

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the Environmental Confederation of Southwest

Florida and Manasota 88, claims that the law violates the Florida Constitution

because it deals with two unrelated topics.

" This law seeks specifically to favor the interests of large corporations over

the ordinary Floridian, " said David Guest of Earthjustice. " All citizens have

the right to question their government, and we don't intend to let an

unconstitutional law take that right away. "

After repeated attempts to get the bill, Senate Bill 270, passed in previous

sessions, sponsor state Senator Jim King attached it to an Everglades

restoration bill that was widely supported. The package was signed into law in

May 2002.

The Florida Constitution forbids laws that contain more than one subject.

According to the groups' complaint, this rule is intended to protect the public

from just this sort of cobbling together of bills that lack support of their own

with more popular measures.

" The political connivery used here was completely illegal, " said Guest. " And the

law signed as a result has very dangerous implications for the future of

environmental protection in Florida. "

The provisions in question limit citizen standing to sue over permits for

activities that could affect the environment. To bring a challenge under the new

law, citizens have to file suit as incorporated groups of 25 or more in an

affected county or as intervenors in already active cases.

The permits affected by the law include those for activities like offshore oil

drilling. Earthjustice used the citizen intervention provision five years ago on

behalf of Florida Wildlife Federation and other environmental organizations to

prevent the state Department of Environmental Protection from granting a permit

for offshore oil drilling off the coast of Florida. The Department had attempted

to issue the permit.

Guest, who handled the successful permit challenge, said that if the proposed

amendments had been in effect then, there would be offshore drilling in

Florida's coastal waters today.

" Citizens were the only ones arguing to protect Florida's coastal waters from

drilling, " said Guest. " Stripping citizens of their right to challenge permits

that authorize environmentally destructive activities turns the fight to protect

the environment into a one sided debate. "

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