Florida
Challenge to drag shows law won’t go to trial until next spring
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A trial to determine if a new Florida law targeting drag shows is constitutional won’t start until next spring.
A filing posted in federal court in Tallahassee late last week shows that the trial won’t start until the beginning of June 2024. It is scheduled to last two days and will be decided by a judge instead of a jury.
The law, championed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, is on hold for now. A federal judge last month issued a temporary injunction preventing it from being enforced until the trial is held. The state of Florida has appealed that decision.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell issued an order clarifying that the injunction applied to all venues in Florida, not just the restaurant that had sued the state challenging the law’s constitutionality.
The new law punishes venues for allowing children into “adult live performances.” Although it does not specify drag shows, the sponsor of the legislation said it was aimed at those performances. Venues that violate the law face fines and the possibility of their liquor licenses being suspended or revoked. Individuals could also be charged with a misdemeanor crime.
The lawsuit was brought by the owner of a Hamburger Mary’s restaurant and bar in Orlando, which regularly hosts drag shows, including family-friendly performances on Sundays that children were invited to attend. The restaurant owner said the law was overbroad, was written vaguely and violated First Amendment rights by chilling speech.
Before announcing his candidacy for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, DeSantis made anti-LGBTQ+ legislation a large part of his agenda as governor. Other bills he signed would ban gender-affirming care for minors and restrict discussion of personal pronouns in schools.
Oklahoma
Man imprisoned nearly 50 years for deadly robbery is freed after a judge orders new trial
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A man who had been imprisoned in Oklahoma for almost 50 years for a fatal shooting that he has long claimed he didn’t commit has been freed from custody after a judge ordered a new trial.
Glynn Ray Simmons had been convicted in the 1974 death during a robbery of Carolyn Sue Rogers, a liquor store clerk in Edmond, located just north of Oklahoma City.
A woman who was shot and injured during the robbery later picked Simmons out of a lineup. But Simmons, from Louisiana, has repeatedly said he wasn’t in Oklahoma but in his home state at the time of the robbery.
The Oklahoma County District Attorney’s office had asked District Judge Amy Palumbo to vacate the sentence and set a date for a new trial, saying prosecutors had failed to turn over evidence in the case, including a police report that showed an eyewitness might have identified other suspects in the case and not Simmons and a co-defendant, Don Roberts.
During a court hearing on Wednesday, Palumbo vacated Simmons’ murder conviction and life sentence, saying he was entitled to relief “for the state’s failure to disclose police department reports which denied Glynn Simmons a fair trial.”
Simmons was 22 when he was convicted. He is now 70 years old.
“I’m free now,” Simmons told KFOR as he walked out of the courtroom on Wednesday. “It’s indescribable. I did 48 years. Justice is out the window. This is mercy. I’m happy. I’m ready to move on and make something of my life.”
A jury had originally sentenced Simmons and Roberts to death. Their sentences were reduced to life in prison in 1977 after U.S. Supreme Court rulings related to capital punishment.
Roberts was released on parole in 2008 and testified at an April hearing that he was innocent, the Oklahoman reported.
Oklahoma County District Attorney Vicki Behenna said the next step will be to evaluate the case for retrial, which was set for Oct. 23.
Arizona
Court strikes down limits by Republicans on filming of police
PHOENIX (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that an Arizona law limiting how close people can get to recording law enforcement is unconstitutional, citing infringement against a clearly established right to film police doing their jobs.
The ruling Friday from U.S. District Judge John J. Tuchi permanently blocks enforcement of the law that he suspended last year.
The Republican-backed law was signed by former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey in July 2022 but enthusiasm for the restrictions faded and legislators refused an opportunity to defend the law during an initial court suspension. Republican state Sen. John Kavanagh, who sponsored the measure, has said he was unable to find an outside group to defend the legislation.
The law would have made it illegal to knowingly film police officers 8 feet (2.5 meters) or closer if the officer tells the person to stop. And on private property, an officer who decides that someone is interfering or that the area is unsafe could have ordered the person to stop filming even if the recording was being made with the owner’s permission.
“The law prohibits or chills a substantial amount of First Amendment protected activity and is unnecessary to prevent interference with police officers given other Arizona laws in effect,” Tuchi ruled.
A coalition of media groups and the ACLU successfully sued to block the law. Prominent law enforcement officials refused to defend the law, including former Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich and both the prosecutor and sheriff’s office in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix.
Bystander cellphone videos are largely credited with revealing police misconduct — such as with the 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis officers — and reshaping the conversation around police transparency. But Republican Arizona lawmakers initially said the legislation was needed to limit people with cameras who deliberately impede officers.
The Associated Press filed a friend of the court brief urging Tuchi to block the law from being enforced. The AP’s attorneys said that photographers especially could be caught up while covering rallies, where it could limit their ability to capture the full interactions between police and protesters.
