FAC Members Sue Florida Over Internet Identifier Law

Moments ago, The Florida Justice Institute, Inc. and the law firm of Weitzner & Jonas, P.A. filed a lawsuit in Federal Court to strike down the State of Florida’s requirement that registered citizen’s “Internet Identifiers” be reported.

In connection therewith, our attorneys plan to seek a temporary restraining order to enjoin the implementation of revisions to the law, scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2016, that would require sex offenders to register every URL used for communication.

If the new provisions of the law were to go into effect, each time the Internet is used for a communicative purpose, a registrant must first disclose the Internet Identifier and website, including every URL, to the government. For someone whose work requires internet access, this could easily amount to hundreds of reporting requirements per day. In all cases, an innocent omission could land the registrant in prison for five years.

The law applies to both those on probation and off indiscriminately and expressly includes anonymous speech. As it stands, the law already chills registered citizens’ First Amendment rights. If it’s allowed to continue it will undoubtedly cost individuals their careers and effectively ban Internet use for registered citizens in Florida.

This is the lawsuit that FAC has been pushing for and working on for over a year. Similar lawsuits have been successful in other states, including; California, Nebraska, Georgia, Utah and Michigan. We are hoping for a similar result.

A copy of the filed complaint can be viewed by clicking this link.