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The Miami Herald Editorial Board Warns of DeSantis's Screwing Floridians and Ultimately, America
DeSantis gets executive privilege. Floridians (and public records laws) get the shaft | OpinionGov. Ron DeSantis has opened yet another front in his endless war to remake Florida in his image. This time, its an attack on the publics right to know and a claim of executive privilege that could result in a new level of unfettered power for the governor.
The latest effort to control our state goes to the heart of what government is supposed to do: Represent the people.
Governors are not kings. They cannot do whatever they like. Their work is our work. Their records are our records. We paid for them with our taxes just like we pay for all the work that is done in Tallahassee, work done in our name and to which we should have almost complete access, except for rare situations in which the government can prove the reason for a (narrow) exception.
...now we have a ruling in a lawsuit, John Doe v. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Executive Office of the Governor, that runs counter to all of those well-defined concepts of government-by-the-people. As the Miami Herald reported, an anonymous person filed suit last year asking for documents showing any communication between the governors office and six or seven pretty big legal conservative heavyweights that DeSantis revealed on a podcast that hed consulted when making judicial picks for the Florida Supreme Court. DeSantis legal team (which we are no doubt paying for) argued in court that he shouldnt have to hand over the documents because such things should be kept secret. The governor needs to be able to talk to anyone and everyone in private if it helps him make good decisions for the rest of us, or so the argument went...
One more word on this, to the rest of the country: A governor whose actions wont be subject to the sunshine of public scrutiny is a danger to Floridians. A president who does that would be a danger to us all.
The latest effort to control our state goes to the heart of what government is supposed to do: Represent the people.
Governors are not kings. They cannot do whatever they like. Their work is our work. Their records are our records. We paid for them with our taxes just like we pay for all the work that is done in Tallahassee, work done in our name and to which we should have almost complete access, except for rare situations in which the government can prove the reason for a (narrow) exception.
...now we have a ruling in a lawsuit, John Doe v. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Executive Office of the Governor, that runs counter to all of those well-defined concepts of government-by-the-people. As the Miami Herald reported, an anonymous person filed suit last year asking for documents showing any communication between the governors office and six or seven pretty big legal conservative heavyweights that DeSantis revealed on a podcast that hed consulted when making judicial picks for the Florida Supreme Court. DeSantis legal team (which we are no doubt paying for) argued in court that he shouldnt have to hand over the documents because such things should be kept secret. The governor needs to be able to talk to anyone and everyone in private if it helps him make good decisions for the rest of us, or so the argument went...
One more word on this, to the rest of the country: A governor whose actions wont be subject to the sunshine of public scrutiny is a danger to Floridians. A president who does that would be a danger to us all.
Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article271924982.html#storylink=cpy
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The Miami Herald Editorial Board Warns of DeSantis's Screwing Floridians and Ultimately, America (Original Post)
ancianita
Feb 2023
OP
Baitball Blogger
(46,775 posts)1. We need to read more editorials like that one, all across Florida.
ancianita
(36,184 posts)2. Seriously. I'm loving the Miami Herald.
Other newspapers across the state would do well to tell the country more about this authoritarian governor.
Baitball Blogger
(46,775 posts)3. We lost a great newspapaer when the St. Pete Times went under.
They were ahead of their time.
ancianita
(36,184 posts)4. Right? Well, St. Pete's pretty Democratic, as are most of FL's cities.
We've still got David Jolly around. I really admire his savvy and insights about rethug politics.
I wish he'd run against DeSantis. He's a much better public speaker with a command of Florida issues. But the state's billionaires would really try to crush him like they did Crist.
Skittles
(153,252 posts)5. like Trump, DeFascist does not hide who he is
yet plenty of people voted for him
it is very disturbing indeed
dalton99a
(81,656 posts)6. Kick
Karadeniz
(22,599 posts)7. If DeSantis brought up the advisors in public, he lost the right to go private about them.