Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that creates a fund for victims of a now-closed school for boys, and the Supreme Court upholds the Red Flag law.
DeSantis signs Dozier School fund bill
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill Friday approving a $20 million fund for victims of the Dozier School for Boys in Marianna.
The fund will be distributed to hundreds of now-elderly men known as the "white house boys" who endured horrific abuse while in state custody.
The school closed down in 2011, after decades of physical, sexual and mental abuse to students. Some boys died at the school.
And in 2013, more than 50 bodies buried in unmarked graves were found at Dozier.
Some of the surviving victims went to Tallahassee in February to share their stories with lawmakers.
“I was a victim. Let’s change that. I am a hero and a survivor of Dozier School for Boys,” Ralph Freeman said at the time. “I refuse to let Dozier win. I was tortured. To this day, I cannot have children because of things that happened to me at Dozier.”
The bill takes effect on July 1.
State Sen. Darryl Rouson has been one of the biggest supporters of the Senate version of this bill.
Supreme Court upholds ban on domestic violence offenders owning guns
The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a ban on domestic abusers owning firearms, the high court's first major Second Amendment ruling since a 2022 case that drastically expanded gun rights.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the nearly unanimous majority. Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, who authored the 2022 gun case ruling, was the lone dissent.
"An individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment," Roberts wrote in the 8-1 majority opinion.
The case was brought by Zackey Rahimi, a Texas man who was accused of striking his girlfriend during an altercation in a parking lot after an argument and later threatening to shoot her in 2019. Rahimi was issued a restraining order in 2020, but he "repeatedly violated" the order, the federal government wrote in its brief in the case, including being involved in five separate shooting incidents. Police secured a warrant after Rahimi was found to be a suspect in the shootings, and upon a search of his house, officers "found a .45-caliber pistol, a .308-caliber rifle, magazines, ammunition, and a copy of the protective order."
Rahimi argued that the federal government was violating his Second Amendment rights by refusing to allow him to have a firearm. But in oral arguments last year, the Biden administration argued that the 1994 restriction at the center of the case — which bans firearms for people under restraining orders to stay away from their spouses or partners — was consistent with the longstanding practice of disarming dangerous people.
"When a restraining order contains a finding that an individual poses a credible threat to the physical safety of an intimate partner, that individual may — consistent with the Second Amendment — be banned from possessing firearms while the order is in effect," Roberts wrote in his ruling. "Since the founding, our Nation's firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms."
"Taken together, the surety and going armed laws confirm what common sense suggests: When an individual poses a clear threat of physical violence to another, the threatening individual may be disarmed," he added.
At the arguments last year, some justices voiced concern that a ruling for Rahimi could also jeopardize the background check system that the Biden administration said has stopped more than 75,000 gun sales in the past 25 years based on domestic violence protective orders.
Thomas, who authored the landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen that struck down the state's requirement to show "proper cause" for a concealed carry permit, argued that "not a single historical regulation justifies the statute at issue."
"The Framers (of the U.S. Constitution) and ratifying public understood 'that the right to keep and bear arms was essential to the preservation of liberty,'" Thomas wrote. "Yet, in the interest of ensuring the Government can regulate one subset of society, today’s decision puts at risk the Second Amendment rights of many more."
How Democrats are trying to keep their U.S. Senate majority this fall
Democrats in the United States Senate are facing an uphill battle to maintain their thin majority this fall.
In total, Democrats are defending 22 Senate seats in November — double the number Republicans have to protect.
Michigan Sen. Gary Peters is chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, the group tasked with keeping Democrats in control of the chamber.
Currently, the Senate is a closely divided 51 to 49. The majority is made up of 47 Democrats and four independents who vote with them. In November, 22 of those seats are at stake. A 23rd seat in West Virginia is widely expected to flip to Republican because Democrat-turned-Independent Sen. Joe Manchin is retiring.
These 10 Senate races standout as the ones to watch: five that feature Democratic incumbents trying to keep their seats (Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin); three that are open contests triggered by retirements (Arizona, Maryland, and Michigan); and two that are Republican-held seats that Democrats feel they have a shot at flipping (Florida and Texas).
Peters argued Democrats have an advantage in what he calls “candidate quality.” He said most of their candidates in competitive races have deep roots in their state and are well-known political brands. He pointed out that Republican candidates in Senate battlegrounds like Montana, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Nevada either moved to their states in recent years or spent years living elsewhere.
“What we found with Republicans is that they’ve recruited a lot of very wealthy folks who can self-fund their campaigns, but they don’t really have much contact with their state,” Peters said. “Oftentimes they’re really out-of-staters that are just parachuting into the state and saying, ‘Hey, I want to be your senator.’ That simply does not fly.”
The two toughest races for Democrats are in Montana and Ohio, where incumbent Sens. Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown, respectively, are each trying to win fourth terms in states former President Donald Trump, a Republican, won twice.
Tester leans heavily into being a third-generation Montana dirt farmer who lost three fingers in a meat grinder, while Brown regularly touts his Ohio roots and advocacy for the everyday worker.