Ditchmen • NUCA of Florida Ditchmen - December 2019 | Page 17

sentences, but critics liken it to a
poll tax that will keep many felons
from having their rights restored.
GUNS:
A federal judge has scheduled
a trial in October in the National
Rifle Association’s constitutional
challenge to a 2018 state law
that raised from 18 to 21 the
minimum age to purchase rifles
and other long guns in Florida.
Lawmakers and then-Gov. Rick
Scott approved the change after
the mass shooting at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School
in Parkland. A state appeals court
also is expected in 2020 to weigh
a challenge by cities and counties
to a 2011 state law that threatens
stiff penalties --- including fines
and potential removal from
office --- if local elected officials
approve gun regulations. A Leon
County circuit judge found the law
unconstitutional, spurring lawyers
for Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney
General Ashley Moody to go to
the Tallahassee-based 1st District
Court of Appeal.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA:
The state’s medical-marijuana
industry has spawned a massive
amount of litigation in recent years,
but a Florida Supreme Court case
could lead to what some attorneys
for pot companies describe as a
“seismic shift.” The case centers
on how the Legislature carried out
a 2016 constitutional amendment
that broadly legalized medical
marijuana. Lower courts sided
with arguments by the Tampa firm
Florigrown that a key part of a law
passed in 2017 conflicted with
the constitutional amendment.
That part of the law involves what
is known as “vertical integration”
--- a system in which a limited
number of companies that receive
medical marijuana licenses handle
all aspects of the cannabis trade,
including growing, processing
and distributing the products. The
Florida Department of Health took
the case to the Supreme Court.
WATER WAR:
The U.S. Supreme Court in 2020
could resolve Florida’s long-
running fight with Georgia about
water in the Apalachicola River and
Apalachicola Bay, after a special
master issued a report that dealt a
major blow to Florida. The special
master, Senior U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals Judge Paul J. Kelly,
was appointed by the Supreme
Court to make a recommendation
about whether Georgia should be
forced to share more water in the
Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-
Flint river system, which links the
two states. Florida, which filed
the lawsuit in 2013, contends that
Georgia’s water use has damaged
the Apalachicola River and the
vital oyster industry in the Franklin
County bay. But Kelly filed a report
Dec. 11 recommending that the
Supreme Court reject Florida’s
request for an order “equitably
apportioning” water in the river
system
DECEMBER 2019 • DITCHMEN
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