UPDATE: Oppose Senate Bill 234
THIS BILL SAILED THROUGH THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE WITHOUT OPPOSITION AND UNANIMOUSLY.
On Monday, February 15, 2021, the Senate Judiciary committee will consider Senate Bill 234. It is item number 3 on their agenda.
Among other things, this bill introduced by Senator Lauren Book would change the definition of “day” to mean part of any calendar day. Therefore, as written, anywhere you are physically present 4 or more times a year would technically have to be registered within 48 hours.
Visit your parent’s home once a week for dinner? Play cards at a friend’s house once a month? Stop in for coffee at a neighbors’ once every few weeks? Use the same barber?… You’d be registering them all.
Senator Book could have easily clarified the confusion in the language of the bill to state, “a Day means any Calendar Day that includes a 24 hour period”, but she chose, “A day includes any part of a calendar day.” Any part of a calendar day can be one minute! If you sit at a bus stop for 5 minutes on your way to work have you spent a day there? Do you now need to change your transient address?
This Bill was intended to clarify but it only makes things more confusing! Senator Book’s proposal to redefine the meaning of day is ridiculous! It must be stopped.
We call on our members to contact the Senate Judiciary via email and telephone and ask them to OPPOSE SENATE BILL 234 when they meet this coming Monday!
The Senators on the Judiciary Committee can be found here: https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/Show/JU/ click on their names for contact information.
For quick reference:
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5024 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5006 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5012 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5021 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5005 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5001 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5017 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5029 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5027 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5019 |
| [email protected] | (850) 487-5033 |
IMPORTANT NOTE: COMMUNICATION WITH A STATE SENATOR OR REPRESENTATIVE BECOMES PUBLIC RECORD. PLEASE REMEMBER TO BE RESPECTFUL TO THEM AND STICK TO THE FACTS. IF YOU WRITE SOMETHING RUDE OR OFFENSIVE, YOU WILL ONLY HARM OUR EFFORT AND WE RATHER YOU SEND NOTHING AT ALL
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Is a companion bill in the House now?
Do we need to be contacting our representatives? Or have we done enough.
I emailed all the Senators on the Judiciary Committee on the weekend. Paying dues this week.
Maybe we should hold a prayer vigil in front of Lauren’s house.
Okay, so another failed attempt to stop a bill before it becomes law. Nobody spoke in opposition, there was no debate. All our pleas fell on deaf ears once again.
So what’s next? Raising thousands of dollars to mount a court challenge that would take years?
Why do we even try?
Or we can get some members in Tallahassee to show up for the next committee it will come before. Why not try that?
By the way, in our many hyperbolic examples of strict enforcement of the law, considering a day is any part of a day, and a minute can be a part of a day, then we can be forced to register in as little as 4 minutes if each minute falls on a different day.
So if I decided to protest a certain Senator that rhymes with Crook, for example, I could be required to register by strict interpretation of the law should I decide to stop in front of said Senator’s house even to pray for this person for a single minute.
After all, nothing states the minutes even have to be continual, simply a part of a day of three consecutive days. So I could stop at say nokn for a minute each day. Monday doesn’t count. Tuesday, Wednesday, that’s two days, Thursday I must register.
This bill is beyond absurd. Again, what do you expect from a senator who thinks a peaceful protest is violent stalking?