{"id":127435,"date":"2026-01-22T05:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/127435\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T05:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T05:02:08","slug":"black-democratic-lawmakers-to-respond-after-florida-ag-says-no-to-racially-discriminatory-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/127435\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Democratic lawmakers to respond after Florida AG says no to racially discriminatory laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 After Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his office would no longer enforce over 80 race-based laws<\/a> on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, several Black Democratic lawmakers in Florida are set to host a news conference in response.<\/p>\n

In a release, legislators said they will discuss the \u201cconstitutional, policy, and practical implications of the opinion across multiple areas of state government and public life.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the release, this includes topics like civil rights, healthcare equity, business development, and workforce pipelines. The conference is scheduled for Thursday at 12 p.m.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Uthmeier made his announcement via an opinion published earlier this week, which lists out the laws that mandate discrimination based on race.<\/p>\n

\u201cRacial discrimination is wrong. It is also unconstitutional,\u201d he writes. \u201cYet Florida maintains several laws on its books that promote and require discrimination on its face.\u201d<\/p>\n

The laws discussed in Uthmeier\u2019s opinion are listed out below:<\/p>\n

Uthmeier cites the 14th Amendment<\/a> and Florida\u2019s very own constitution<\/a>, explaining that citizens are supposed to be treated as individuals and protected from racial discrimination by the government.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor government officials, the path forward is simple,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2019The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The attorney general also pointed to a 2022 Supreme Court case<\/a> in which Harvard College\u2019s race-based admissions procedures were found to have violated the Equal Protection Clause of the federal Civil Rights Act. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Court further explained that \u2018[a]ny exception to the Constitution\u2019s demand for equal protection must survive a daunting two-step examination known… as strict scrutiny,\u2019\u201d Uthmeier adds.<\/p>\n

[BELOW: Florida AG James Uthmeier holds Orlando news conference on protecting women\u2019s sports]<\/p>\n

As Uthmeier tells it, any sort of race-based state action must be used to \u201cfurther compelling governmental interests\u201d and remain \u201cnarrowly tailored\u201d as necessary to achieve those interests.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the U.S. Supreme Court has identified only two compelling interests that permit race-based state action:<\/p>\n

Remediating specific, identified instances of past discrimination that violated the Constitution or a statute<\/p>\n

Avoiding imminent and serious risks to human safety in prisons, such as a race riot<\/p>\n

As such, Uthmeier argues, race-based state actions like those in the statutes above must be limited in duration, as \u201call governmental use of race must have a logical end point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of these laws withstands strict scrutiny. <\/p>\n

First, these laws do not further a compelling governmental interest because none of these laws identifies any of the limited, recognized constitutional justifications for race-based classifications – namely remedying specific instances of past discrimination or avoiding imminent and serious risks to human safety.<\/p>\n

These laws further fail strict scrutiny because none are limited in duration and because they preclude race-neutral alternatives.”<\/p>\n

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/p>\n

One of the most \u201cegregious\u201d examples of racial discrimination that Uthmeier points out is a statewide affirmative action mandate<\/a> for Florida executive agencies.<\/p>\n

Under this law, executive agencies must develop affirmative action plans to ensure \u201cfull utilization\u201d of groups like women, minorities and disabled people.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Uthmeier discusses race-based preferences in government contracting, calling out a statute<\/a> that provides the following \u201cspending goals\u201d for minority state contractors:<\/p>\n

For construction contracts: 4% for Black Americans, 6% for Hispanic Americans, and 11% for American women<\/p>\n

For architectural\/engineering contracts: 9% for Hispanic Americans, 1% for Asian Americans, and 15% for American women<\/p>\n

For commodities: 2% for Black Americans, 4% for Hispanic Americans, 0.5% for Asian Americans, 0.5% for Native Americans, and 17% for American women<\/p>\n

For contractual services: 6% for Black Americans, 7% for Hispanic Americans, 1% for Asian Americans, 0.5% for Native Americans, and 36% for American women<\/p>\n

Thus, Uthmeier announced that his office finds the listed laws must be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office, therefore, will not defend or enforce any of these discriminatory provisions,\u201d he concludes.<\/p>\n

You can read Attorney General Uthmeier\u2019s full opinion below.<\/p>\n

Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n

Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 After Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced his office would no longer enforce over 80…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1107,28,30,29,2161,1186,99,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-127435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-courts","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-government","13":"tag-holidays","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-tallahassee"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}