TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray Florida Capital Bureau) – Florida’s Black Democratic Caucus held a news conference at the Capitol Thursday to push back against Attorney General James Uthmeier’s opinion declaring affirmative action laws unconstitutional.
Uthmeier issued the legal opinion on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, concluding that state laws requiring race-based state action are presumptively unconstitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Article I, section 2, of Florida’s Constitution. He said more than 80 state laws are unconstitutional because they consider race.
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The laws cover affirmative action hiring, diversity requirements and minority business programs.
Democratic lawmakers said the opinion rolls back civil rights protections that are still needed.
“These laws represent decades of bipartisan policy and carefully tailored programs that, now with the stroke of a pen, are in jeopardy,” said Sen. Darryl Rouson, D-St. Petersburg.
Republican legislators have filed bills supporting Uthmeier’s position. The attorney general’s opinion is not binding, but he won’t defend these laws in court.
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