Federal judge blocks part of Florida law banning elected officials from lobbying other governments

A federal judge on Tuesday blocked enforcement of a strict new Florida law that prohibits elected officials from paid lobbying on behalf of clients before any other government.

U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom sided with several elected officials who argued their First Amendment rights were violated by the Florida law, which went into effect on Dec. 31.

Bloom issued a preliminary injunction blocking that part of the law until the underlying case is decided. A trial is scheduled to begin in August.

The judge let stand the other major part of the new law that imposes a lengthy ban — six years — on certain lobbying activities by former government officials once they leave office.

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The new law covers all manner of elected officials: statewide officeholders including the governor, state legislators, county commissioners, countywide officials, school board members, mayors, and city, town and village commissioners.

It banned them from lobbying for money while in office on issues of policy, appropriations or procurement before any other level of government: federal, state or local.

An unknown number of elected and appointed officials throughout the state are potentially affected. “There’s no head count on these individuals. But we’re confident that it’s hundreds,” Kendall Coffey, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, said in a telephone interview.

The law has already had an impact. Some elected officials who have worked as lobbyists stopped. Others resigned their government posts.

Part of Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller’s law practice, for example, included lobbying the Legislature in Tallahassee on behalf of some clients. Geller, a former longtime state senator and state representative, said in December he wouldn’t take on lobbying clients in 2023 pending resolution of the challenge.

In the most high-profile South Florida impact of the law, Lubby Navarro resigned as an elected member of the Miami-Dade School Board just before it went into effect on Dec. 31.

That allowed her to continue working as a lobbyist for the South Broward Hospital District, the government agency better known as Memorial Healthcare System, which operates a network of hospitals and health services in the southern third of the county.

As a result of the ruling, Geller and others in office can again take on lobbying clients if they want, said Benedict Kuehne, another attorney for the plaintiffs. But it’s too late for Navarro, who is out of office and has been replaced.

U.S. District Court Judge Beth Bloom, shown in a 2018 photo, blocked enforcement of part of Florida's strict new law banning elected officials from lobbying any level of government while they're in office. (Amy Beth Bennett / Sun Sentinel)

Bloom wrote that plaintiffs Miami-Dade County Commissioner René Garcia and South Miami Mayor Javier Fernández — and Geller, who said in a declaration in the case but wasn’t a plaintiff — “reasonably fear that the Lobbying Restrictions are having a chilling effect on their First Amendment rights.”

Bloom said the state didn’t show why the law needed to be so broad. “Prohibiting Garcia from receiving money to lobby the very committee he sits on would arguably further the State’s interests of preventing quid pro quo corruption or its appearance. However, defendants [the state officials defending the law] have not shown a link between quid pro quo corruption and prohibitions against Garcia lobbying other state entities,” Bloom wrote, adding that the state also didn’t show a “nexus between quid quo pro corruption” and Garcia lobbying the federal government.

“The judge recognized the legitimacy of combatting quid pro quo corruption, but these laws simply don’t target that concern, Kuehne said. “The judge has validated First Amendment protections for now in Florida.”

Lubby Navarro resigned as a member of the Miami-Dade County School Board in December to comply with a new state law restricting lobbying by elected officials. That allowed her to continue working as a lobbyist for the South Broward Hospital District, the government agency better known as Memorial Healthcare System, which operates a network of hospitals and health services in the southern third of the county. (Posted by kdean01)

Bloom kept in place, for now, the six-year ban on many lobbying activities by those leaving office after the law took effect.

After leaving office, the law prohibits statewide elected officials or legislators from lobbying the Legislature or any state government body or agency for six years. A top appointed official couldn’t lobby the governor or other statewide elected officials, the executive branch, the Legislature or their own department for six years. County, school board and city officials would be prevented from lobbying the entities where they served for six years.

The restrictions on lobbying after leaving office prompted the resignations of several high-level officials in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration. They left office late last year, unwilling to risk the prospect that they wouldn’t be able to lobby for six years after leaving office.

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Bloom ruled the plaintiffs didn’t show they had sufficient legal standing to challenge those provisions.

Her opinion said statements from Garcia and Fernández and Palm Beach County Commissioner Mack Bernard that they planned to lobby after they were out of elected office weren’t enough to show that they suffered specific, concrete adverse damage from the law.

Part of Broward County Commissioner Steve Geller’s law practice, for example, included lobbying the Legislature in Tallahassee on behalf of some clients. Geller, a former longtime state senator and state representative, said in December he wouldn’t take on lobbying clients in 2023 pending resolution of the challenge to a new state lobbying law. (Brittany Wallman/Sun Sentinel )

The new state law stems from an amendment voters added to the Florida Constitution in 2018. Last year, the Legislature passed laws implementing the restrictions, including a $10,000 fine for violations.

Five elected officials filed a federal lawsuit on Dec. 21 seeking to block implementation of the law and asking that it be ruled unconstitutional. At year’s end, Bloom rejected a request by attorneys for the plaintiffs to block the law from going into effect.

Anthony Man can be reached at [email protected], on Twitter @browardpolitics and on Post.news/@browardpolitics.