Orlando, Florida – the new legislation meant to protect the selected employees and their families from harassment, worried state observations that say that this would also prevent voters from knowing whether their legislators live in their areas as required.
Florida’s legislation in April prevailed the bill (SB 268), which will release the disclosure of telephone numbers and full home addresses of a wide range of civil servants, including members of the legislature.
Sponsored by state senator Scheurin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, the bill aims to protect civil servants and their families from threats, harassment and intimidation. She is now heading for governor Ron Ron Ron for approval.
State Senator Jason Brodur, R-Lake Mary, who sponsored the bill, said that a few years ago, when he served at Florida’s house, a brick was thrown into his living room window.
“Critics must serve the service for 10 minutes before the casting of stones,” said Brodeur, whose area includes the Seminole County and part of the Orange CountyS “I don’t care what the non -public officials think.”
But Bobby Block, CEO of the Florida First Amendment Foundation, said he doubted the bill would prevent employees from being directed – but he was convinced that it would harm government reporting.
“What this law will do is that it will now make it impossible … Citizens know, be able to check whether the person they vote for, or re -elevated they still do not live in the area they think,” he said.
Block said the rights to Floridians’ first changes are threatened when government information is limited. The bill is only the latest in the decade of legislature efforts to carve the exceptions of Florida’s public records, he said.
“Sunshine is an increasingly shady condition,” he added.
State representative Bruce Antone, D-Corlando, faced an ethics complaint last year by his opponent in the Primary Party of the Democratic Party, who accused him of not living in his area, despite the legal requirements to do so through election dayS
Addresses of numerous official documents – including forms for registration of voters, tax records of real estate and submission of campaigns – suggest that he does not live in his area, which covers part of Orlando and West Orange County, according to a report from 2024 of Fresh Take Florida, the Jaccoon Program Information Service at the University of Floor.
The bill – which Antone supports – will make information used in this investigation inaccessible.
Asked if this story motivated his vote, Antone replied that there was no “specific reason” to support the bill.
“Like the overwhelming majority of colleagues from the House of Representatives, I voted for the bill, and 95% of the bills that passed this session passed unanimously,” he said.
The bill would allow someone to see urban and postcode of employees, but not a street address. The information that would be available may not be sufficient to confirm the stay of lawmakers, as many areas include multiple cities and postal codes.
The bill also protects the names of the lawmakers of neighborhoods and GPS coordinates or other data that would identify their home address.
State representative Anna Escamani, D-Korlando, voted against the bill, one of only two members in the House to do soS She said she sympathized with the worries of other legislators – she was confronted with harassment at home – but she did not want to address them by limiting public access to information. Escamani also said that legislators should not have special privileges.
“I am uncomfortable to deal with special treatment or special confidentiality just because of the title to my name,” she said. “At the end of the day, there are many people who are at risk that are harassed exactly as we, and they do not have the same type of protection.”
If signed by the Law by Tannis, the bill will enter into force on July 1 and will apply to members of the Congress and the legislation of Florida, the governor and the cabinet, the mayors, the assets of the district and the supervisory authorities, the school supervisors, the members of the school council and the city council.
The spouses and elderly children of these employees would have the same information, and minor children would have additional information that is maintained privately, including their names, birth dates and names and places of schools or day care facilities.
State legislation is already blocking the public that information on law enforcement officers and active or former civilian staff hired by law enforcement agencies; present or former judges of the Supreme Court; judges in the county, circle and appeal of the courts; state lawyers; public defenders; District tax collectors; and court officials.
Former State Senator Randy Finn, elected to the Congress in April, said during a hearing of the Bill Committee in February that the legislation would protect the legislators by telling the threats of death he had received.
“I may be the only member of the legislature who has been arrested two people persecuted and closed for death threats,” Finn said. “The last person sits in prison right now because he said he knew where I live, and he came to my house then and there to kill me and my family, and we had to make the law enforcement agencies to our house with sirens and everything else.”
A block, though against the bill, said he was worried about the feeling of fear in US policy, contributed to the passage of the bill, marking the attack on April April against the Pennsylvania government, Josh Shapiro, who had to escape from the governor’s estate with his family in the middle of the night.
“Legislators, civil servants, are afraid,” Block said. “They are afraid of their rivals, afraid of trolls online, are afraid of their base, afraid of their opponent’s base. This is a sad accusation of the times we live now.”