From the demise penalty to gender identification to abortion, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has cemented himself as a conservative standard-bearer within the lead-up to his 2024 presidential announcement.
With the assistance of GOP supermajorities within the statehouse, the Republican has been capable of push via an aggressive agenda that varieties the bottom of his White Home run, which he made official in a Federal Election Fee submitting Wednesday.
Right here’s a have a look at among the insurance policies:
ABORTION
DeSantis signed a invoice banning abortions after six weeks of being pregnant, nevertheless it gained’t take impact except the state’s present 15-week ban is upheld in an ongoing authorized problem that’s earlier than the state Supreme Courtroom, which is managed by conservatives.
A six-week ban in Florida would strike a devastating blow to abortion entry within the South, because the close by states of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi have banned the process in any respect phases of being pregnant. Georgia and South Carolina forbade it after cardiac exercise may be detected, which is round six weeks.
Critics, together with some Republicans, have slammed the six-week regulation as excessive, given that the majority girls don’t even notice they’re pregnant in that timeframe.
“DON’T SAY GAY”
The DeSantis administration expanded the controversial regulation that critics name “Don’t Say Homosexual” to cowl all grades, banning classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identification in faculties.
The transfer got here after DeSantis signed a invoice final 12 months that prohibited such classes via the third grade, a coverage he has championed as a way to guard youngsters from sexualization.
This 12 months, the DeSantis administration put ahead a proposal earlier than the state Board of Training to increase the coverage to grades 4-12, except required by present state requirements or as a part of reproductive well being instruction that college students can select to not take. The board, which is appointed by DeSantis, authorised the proposal and the Legislature put it in regulation.
DeSantis’ training officers have stated the coverage is meant to clarify that academics ought to adhere to the state training curriculum.
PRONOUNS
DeSantis signed a invoice that forestalls faculty staffers or college students from being required to seek advice from individuals by pronouns that don’t correspond to the individual’s intercourse.
The regulation additionally bars faculty workers from asking college students what pronoun they use and bans staffers from sharing their pronouns with college students if they don’t correspond with the staffer’s intercourse.
Moreover, the regulation makes it the coverage of each public faculty that “an individual’s intercourse is an immutable organic trait and that it’s false to ascribe to an individual a pronoun that doesn’t correspond to such individual’s intercourse.”
DEATH PENALTY
DeSantis has signed two main demise penalty payments this 12 months.
The primary ends a unanimous jury requirement in demise penalty sentencing, permitting capital punishment with jury suggestion of at the least 8-4 in favor of execution. Solely three states out of the 27 that impose the demise penalty don’t require unanimity. Alabama permits a 10-2 determination, and Missouri and Indiana let a choose determine when there’s a divided jury.
The change got here in response to a verdict that spared the lifetime of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College shooter, who killed 17 individuals in 2018.
The opposite demise penalty invoice DeSantis signed permits the demise penalty in baby rape convictions, regardless of a U.S. Supreme Courtroom ruling that banned capital punishment in such instances.
The regulation is meant to get the conservative-controlled U.S. Supreme Courtroom to rethink a 2008 ruling that discovered it unconstitutional to make use of capital punishment in baby sexual battery instances.
Florida is amongst a handful of states with present legal guidelines that enable for capital punishment on baby rape convictions however has not used the punishment. given the excessive courtroom ruling. The Florida Supreme Courtroom has additionally dominated in opposition to using capital punishment in sexual battery convictions.
DeSantis stated he believed the Supreme Courtroom’s determination was “unsuitable.”
GUNS
Floridians will be capable of carry hid weapons and not using a allow underneath a invoice DeSantis signed this session.
The brand new regulation will enable anybody who can legally personal a gun in Florida to hold one and not using a allow. It means coaching and a background verify won’t be required to hold hid weapons in public. It takes impact July 1.
Almost 3 million Floridians have a hid weapons allow. Whereas a background verify and three-day ready interval will nonetheless be required to buy a gun from a licensed supplier, they don’t seem to be required for personal transactions or exchanges of weapons.
DeSantis has stated he thinks Florida ought to go even additional and permit individuals to brazenly carry weapons. Whereas some lawmakers have pushed for open carry, it doesn’t seem the Legislature will go such laws this session.
Nonetheless, the governor has boosted the regulation, releasing an announcement that learn “Constitutional Carry is within the books” after he signed it into regulation.
DIVERSITY
One other new regulation bans schools from utilizing state or federal funding for range, fairness and inclusion applications, a constant goal of DeSantis.
Such initiatives, typically known as DEI, have come underneath rising criticism from Republicans who argue the applications are racially divisive.
The regulation comes a 12 months after he signed laws dubbed the Cease WOKE Act, which restricts sure race-based conversations and evaluation in faculties and companies. Final 12 months’s regulation bars instruction that claims members of 1 race are inherently racist or ought to really feel guilt for previous actions dedicated by others of the identical race, amongst different issues.
DISNEY
DeSantis additionally continued his long-running feud with Disney this 12 months.
The corporate got here into his crosshairs for criticizing the so-called Don’t Say Homosexual regulation final 12 months.
As punishment, DeSantis dissolved Disney World’s self-governing district and appointed a brand new board of supervisors that will oversee municipal companies within the sprawling theme parks. However earlier than the brand new board got here in, the corporate pushed although an eleventh-hour settlement that stripped the brand new supervisors of a lot of their authority.
Disney sued DeSantis in federal courtroom in a case that stated the governor waged a “focused marketing campaign of presidency retaliation” after the corporate opposed the sexual orientation and gender identification regulation.
DeSantis has since signed payments to reinforce state oversight of the resort’s monorail in addition to undo agreements made by the Disney board earlier than the state took it over.
