Note that this woman appears to be invoking the Florida Supreme Court's discretionary review: no guarantee that the Court will take the case (and it probably won't).
> the Florida Supreme Court, which has not considered a case on the state constitution's excessive fines clause in over a century
Typical. It's virtually impossible to get the FSC to review a normal person's case nowadays: the Court is too busy with mandatory death-penalty and state-bond reviews, and dealing with DeSantis's nonsense du jour.
Frankly, I'm surprised she even has a chance at further review. Lantana is in Palm Beach County, which is in the geographic jurisdiction of the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Florida's district courts are intended to be the courts of last resort for most cases, yet — shocker! — even Florida's appellate courts are not required to issue written explanations when issuing their decisions. Often they merely issue what's known as a PCA (per curiam affirmance), which cannot be reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court even if the Court wanted to take the case. Along with the Third District (Miami and the Keys), the Fourth District is one of the worst offenders when it comes to burying cases the judges don't like with PCAs.
- opinion written by Judge Ciklin, a former chief judge of the 4DCA, very conservative, and who almost always sides with the government when given the chance
- other panel members were Kuntz and Gross, also very conservative (let's face it: almost all the DCA judges are very conservative, Federalist-Society types nowadays)
- the lady is indeed invoking discretionary review
- yeah, unlikely that the FSC will accept review because of the procedural / issue-preservation problems, but I wish her luck
treetalker•8mo ago
> the Florida Supreme Court, which has not considered a case on the state constitution's excessive fines clause in over a century
Typical. It's virtually impossible to get the FSC to review a normal person's case nowadays: the Court is too busy with mandatory death-penalty and state-bond reviews, and dealing with DeSantis's nonsense du jour.
Frankly, I'm surprised she even has a chance at further review. Lantana is in Palm Beach County, which is in the geographic jurisdiction of the Fourth District Court of Appeal. Florida's district courts are intended to be the courts of last resort for most cases, yet — shocker! — even Florida's appellate courts are not required to issue written explanations when issuing their decisions. Often they merely issue what's known as a PCA (per curiam affirmance), which cannot be reviewed by the Florida Supreme Court even if the Court wanted to take the case. Along with the Third District (Miami and the Keys), the Fourth District is one of the worst offenders when it comes to burying cases the judges don't like with PCAs.
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Edit with further information:
- 4DCA opinion here: https://acis.flcourts.gov/portal/court/cdc2beb5-919b-4198-a7...
- full appellate docket here: https://acis.flcourts.gov/portal/court/cdc2beb5-919b-4198-a7...
- opinion written by Judge Ciklin, a former chief judge of the 4DCA, very conservative, and who almost always sides with the government when given the chance
- other panel members were Kuntz and Gross, also very conservative (let's face it: almost all the DCA judges are very conservative, Federalist-Society types nowadays)
- the lady is indeed invoking discretionary review
- yeah, unlikely that the FSC will accept review because of the procedural / issue-preservation problems, but I wish her luck