Florida’s Permanent Bans on Pandemic Mandates
Bottom Line: Earlier this week Governor DeSantis announced his intention to make permanent the personal protections from government mandates Floridians were afforded during the pandemic. On the back of that announcement, I heard from listeners who were surprised that the state’s previous action to ban mandates weren’t permanent. So, what happened then and what’s being proposed now? Much of what happened two years ago related to pandemic policy is a bit of a blur.
It was right about the time that “Let’s Go Brandon” reached its peak that Governor DeSantis called a special legislative session to formalize his executive orders, which were regularly legally challenged, into legislative action which would be able to be more rigorously defended. The package of four bills passed under that session were billed as the “Keep Florida Free” Agenda. What specifically changed under Florida law with the passage of those bills?
- Private Employer COVID-19 vaccine mandates are prohibited
- Government entities may not require COVID-19 vaccinations of anyone, including employees
- Educational institutions may not require students to be COVID-19 vaccinated
- School districts may not have school face mask policies
- School districts may not quarantine healthy students
- Students and parents may sue violating school districts and recover costs and attorney’s fees
And the laws had teeth. For example, violations by businesses could result in fines of $10,000 per for small businesses and $50,000 per for large businesses. The law was clear enough, and the penalties severe enough, that best that I’m aware there haven’t been any offenders since the laws took effect. But while these changes made a lot of news when the legislation was passed, what didn’t was the timetable for them to remain in effect. The legislation sunsets at the end of the state’s fiscal year, this year, which is in June. Hence Governor DeSantis calling for these laws to be made permanent. While it might seem unlikely that businesses or local governments may attempt to impose these once again, we’re not that far removed from all of them having been imposed right here in South Florida.
What will be most interesting to me, however, is what the language of the legislation banning mandates permanently will be. Will it remain isolated to COVID-19 specifically? The far more compelling policy to me, would be policy which protects against mandates during all future maladies which may make their way here. That’s worth watching as the legislation is taken up in the state legislative session starting in March.