Judge blocks financial disclosure law opposed by many elected officials
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
A federal judge has stopped the enforcement of a Florida law that requires elected officials to publicly reveal detailed information about their net worth.
More than 170 elected officials in Florida had filed a lawsuit in federal court saying “Form 6” was a First Amendment issue. U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian filed the 33-page temporary injunction in federal court Monday, ruling that the law “impermissibly compels content-based speech in violation of the First Amendment.”
That’s because the First Amendment gives you freedom what to say — and what not to say.
“The government can’t tell you that you have to say something,” said Jamie Alan Cole, the Weston city attorney who spearheaded the effort to challenge the law. “Here the government was forcing people to say, ‘My net worth is,’ and then give a dollar amount. They can’t say, ‘My net worth is none of your business.'”
The law’s proponents have argued that filling out more detailed financial forms will provide more transparency, while the law’s opponents have argued it’s an intrusion of privacy and risks their safety. Cole estimated at least 125 city elected officials have resigned in Florida as a result of this law.
As the lawsuit is pending, the city leaders will go back to filling out a Form 1, which discloses the sources of the income and the identity of their assets, but not the amount.
“It it is crucial we have qualified people run and serve in municipal elected positions,” Cole said, but “requiring this highly intrusive disclosure of quintessential private financial information deters people from running. This is the most intrusive financial disclosure anywhere in the country, even more intrusive then the president of the United States or U.S. Congressman.
“Intrusive information doesn’t have anything to do with government ethics. If a city commissioner in a city in Broward owns a municipal bond in Portland, Oregon, does it really mater if it’s worth $10,000, $50,000 or $100,000? It has nothing to do with their job as a city commissioner.”
Cole expects this to be the end of the federal lawsuit unless there is an appeal by the members of Florida Commission on Ethics, who were sued because they enforce and administer the law.
The ruling applies to all elected officials statewide, not just the ones who sued.
Lisa J. Huriash can be reached at lhuriash@sunsentinel.com. Follow on X, formerly Twitter, @LisaHuriash
