In 2011 lawmakers approved a law requiring public employees — including teachers — pay 3 percent of their salary into their retirement account. Public employee unions challenged the law, arguing it unconstitutionally changes a contract with workers and violates workers’ right to collectively bargain pay and benefits. A circuit court overturned the law, but Thursday […]
Editor’s note: This post has been corrected from its original version. Please see the bottom of the story. A group arguing Florida’s Supreme Court judges are too political is citing the 2006 decision striking down vouchers as an example of the court deciding cases based on their own beliefs rather than the state constitution or […]
Earlier this week we gave the full explanation about the Amendment 8 debate in Florida — what the change would and would not do. We know that was a lot to absorb, so we’ve boiled it down to a Cliffs Notes version to sort out the details. 1. What is Amendment 8 and what does […]
Yesterday we explained why this fall’s vote on Amendment 8 can’t directly mean the return of Florida’s universal voucher program or state funding of religious schools. Here’s why: The 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Holmes. We’ve annotated some significant portions of the opinion. That includes the portion where the majority explicitly says […]
Do you have a right to pension benefits in a right-to-work state? That’s one big question the state Supreme Court is facing in a lawsuit over the constitutionality of changing Florida’s pension requirements. In 2011, lawmakers needed to plug a multi-billion budget hole and saw a chance to save the state almost a billion dollars […]
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