Courts

State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and the Florida Center for Government Accountability filed the lawsuit after the Department of Health rebuffed requests for daily information about COVID.

The two-day trial kicked off in Tallahassee with the districts arguing the health department overstepped its authority and the state saying those claims are overblown.

The state asked an administrative judge to toss the challenge by six school boards. The court is slated to hear the case Thursday morning.

The department's proposal and emergency rule both call for allowing parents to opt out their children from masking and children to attend school if they have been exposed to COVID but are asymptomatic.

A Leon County circuit judge refused to block a state law that bans vaccine passports, explaining that in this particular case the issue is whether the law restricts Bead Abode's free speech or regulates conduct.

Attorneys for the Florida Department of Health said in a motion that Miami-Dade, Broward, Orange, Duval, Alachua and Leon counties do not have legal standing to challenge the rule.

The families of students with disabilities are seeking an injunction against the governor's executive order while an appeal of a lower-court ruling moves forward.

Bead Abode argues that the law violates the First Amendment and is seeking an injunction to block it.

Attorneys for the DeSantis administration wrote in a brief that the law is an “economic regulation that does not implicate” the First Amendment.

The parents want the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a judge's refusal to issue a preliminary injunction against Gov. DeSantis' executive order, which they claim violates the ADA and federal Rehabilitation Act.