Used to be, the silly season was in the summer. School was out, people were on vacation, and not much was happening in Tallahassee. Snowbirds were up North, and locals were happier.
I think they got the name “silly season” because it was a slow news time. Things that might otherwise get ignored instead got ink. Local TV news still had to fill time, and editors needed to fill pages.
Well, our Legislature is doing something about that. Instead of waiting for summer to be silly, they are meeting even as I write these words. In election years, they start in January.
There is a certain justice in sending those people up to Tallahassee during the winter. However, it would be better if the cold did not freeze their brains. Then, things like Senate Bill 2024-1780 would not arise.
Frozen brains do stupid stuff, and Sen. Jason Brodeur (R-Seminole) provides ample demonstration. SB 1780, better known as the “Encouraging Frivolous Defamation Claims Act of 2024” has his name all over it.
The bill tries to overrule U.S. Supreme Court case law. Such legislative efforts generally fail, often loudly and with much jeering from the audience.
There are a lot of interesting aspects to the bill. My favorite is that many officials, such as the county manager, are no longer public figures. Say something mean about the manager, or the county attorney, or the chief of police, and they get to sue you.
As a bonus, even if you eventually win, they get fees for part of the effort. That applies to all defamation claims, not just those by managers. Insult any official, they get to sue you, and you get to pay their attorneys.
The bill actually looks like a plaintiff’s lawyer’s dream. An important person whose feelings get hurt can bring suit. The peon who hurt those feelings gets stuck with the lawyer bills, and maybe bills for plastic surgery to heal the thin skin.
The intent is obviously to keep the peons in their places. The Legislature does not want proles criticizing their betters. Certainly, no one ought to observe out loud that Jason Brodeur (R-Seminole) is a goof with no visible regard for the U.S. Constitution.
No legislator wants to be criticized. That makes it easy to guess what they are thinking — sit down, shut up, pay your taxes, and be nice to our friends.
— Andrews is a DeLand-area attorney and a longtime government critic. For purpose of this column, he finds it convenient that there is so much government to criticize.
