FLORIDA – Black Democratic lawmakers hosted 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 discussed 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.
“With a single document, 80 protections put in place over the decades were put on the chopping block,” LaVon Bracy Davis said.
Watch the full conference below:
They listed the programs that they said are now at risk:
- The Office of Minority Health (which address black infant mortality and chronic disease)
- Business Development programs
- Education Initiatives
- Programs that address long-standing disparities in Florida
“These policies vary from scholarships for minorities to consideration for minority membership on state boards and commissions. These programs are not built on quotas or favoritism, but on the realities of current and past discrimination that denied people equal opportunity,” Sen. Darryl Rouson (D-District 16) said.
Attorney General James Uthmeier issued that opinion on Martin Luther King Jr, which lawmakers took an issue with.
“We cannot claim to honor Dr. King on Monday and dismantle his legacy on Thursday, we can’t light candles for justice at breakfast, and then extinguish civil rights at lunch, we can acknowledge civil rights in our speeches and dismantle civil right sin our statutes, so let the record reflect, the black democratic legislators and their allies are no the front line sof this fight,” Davis said.
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.”
House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell said that interpretation ignores reality.
“Discrimination isn’t always a mob of Klansmen,” Driskell said. “It can be bias in housing, business, and healthcare—people denied opportunities over and over again. Equal protection was never meant to ignore unequal conditions. Removing laws that prevent discrimination doesn’t eliminate bias, it simply eliminates accountability."
Jacksonville State Senator Tracie Davis said the opinion will create confusion across state agencies, schools and hospitals.
“This isn’t about the government working for Floridians,” Davis said. “It leaves agencies unsure of how to serve the people of this state. Schools won’t know if tutoring and mentoring programs can continue. Hospitals won’t know if programs addressing maternal or chronic health will continue.”
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: