FLORIDA – Black Democratic lawmakers are hosting a press conference on Thursday to address the attorney general’s opinion concluding that state laws requiring racial discrimination are unconstitutional under the U.S. and Florida Constitutions.
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Legislators will discuss the implications of the opinion across multiple areas of state government and public life. They will discuss civil rights and equal protection, healthcare equity, commerce and small business development and more.
Attorney General James Uthmeier issued that opinion on Martin Luther King Jr.
Uthmeier cites the 14th Amendment and Florida’s constitution, explaining that citizens are supposed to be treated as individuals and protected from racial discrimination by the government.
“Racial discrimination is wrong. It is also unconstitutional,” he writes. “Yet Florida maintains several laws on its books that promote and require discrimination on its face.”
The laws discussed in Uthmeier’s opinion are listed below:
“For government officials, the path forward is simple,” he said. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”
The attorney general also pointed to a 2022 Supreme Court case in which Harvard College’s race-based admissions procedures were found to have violated the Equal Protection Clause of the federal Civil Rights Act.
Read the full opinion below: