Excellent decision out of Alabama Federal Court
An excellent decision out of the Federal District Court for the Middle District of Alabama (which happens to be in our Federal 11th Circuit).
A copy of the decision follows and is shared in the interest of time – interpretation will follow.
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While the outcome was good, the logic is faulty. The Nazis only needed one letter on their state IDs to get their point across.
So I have been trying to find out if AL appealed this decision and here is what I found:
https://www.alea.gov/dps/driver-license/license-and-id-cards/sex-offender-driver-license-designation
I can not seem to find if they appealed the internet identifiers portion. Do we have an attorney on the west coast of Florida that maybe able to assist me. My license is up I Jan and while I only have the statute number, it is still in the middle unlike all the other markings.
This decision has nothing to do with Florida. Your license will still have a statute number on it if you are an offender.
The AL decision is law in Florida. It does not prevent the state from printing statute numbers on licenses. It DOES prevent the FL legislature from printing something more explicit on every registrant’s license. But they can throw a sub-group under the bus as they do now.
I do not have access to Pacermonitor, did this case Doe V Marshall get appealed to the 11th circuit. Also how long can the circuit court of appeals sit on a case, referring to McGuire V Strange?
It did not get appealed.
There is no timeline for the 11th Circuit to rule.
Thank you for a great response. I so appreciate everything you do.
I plan on sending a donation when I get paid on Friday. So in Florida we have to list our emails and internet identifiers but in Alabama they do not. If i read the ruling right. Do we know what the law is in GA. Seems like we have a split in state courts. Is there a way to revisit our internet identifiers in Florida?
Not even a notice of appeal? So the district courts ruling stands, correct?
As my license is up for renewal in January, do we know if the case was appealed? I know its in Alabama but being in our circuit would prove persuasive. I currently have the staute in the bottm right corner but if i am right the new ones have the statute in blue right in the middle.
This case does not impact Florida. You will have to get the new license with the marker in blue in the middle.
To be clear, this case is the law in Florida. It just doesn’t prohibit the state from printing a statute number on licenses (or from singling a subset of the population for something more explicit). The case will prevent the Florida legislature from taking this further— Florida won’t be printing “sexual offender” on anyone’s license anytime soon. It also opines more broadly that registrants “are not second class citizens” and have “the same constitutional rights as everyone else.”
In Florida, for those with the Predator Designation it does say Sexual Predator on their license, not the statute
The decision still allows “Sexual Predator” to be printed on licenses. That is what I meant by “singling out a subset of the population for something more specific,” above. The ruling suggested that a state could do this.
In effect, the ruling protects the licenses of 92% of Florida registrants from further embarrassment while throwing the other 8% under the bus. (And that IS a problem, given that Florida labels people as predators without much rigor).
Since when did Floriduh move the designation from the bottom right corner to the middle of the license? A new law? Passed when?
Not a new law. A new license design.
Yeah, I guess not enough people were noticing it in the bottom right corner so Floriduh increases its size, gives it a brighter color, and puts it front and center to increase the shame and discrimination. How is this not compelled speech?
It is compelled speech. Also I believe the other markings are still bottom right under the second photo. I am looking for a good Attorney up in the Tampa area who would be willing to challenge it. I may be wrong about the other markings such as blood donor, veteran etc but if I am not then what is the state’s interest in putting it in the middle.
Is there a way for me to file some sort of an injunction to stop this while it can fought in court? Has anyone in Florida filed such an action against the new design?
Speak to an attorney
To our knowledge nobody has challenged it