Texas Attorney General Paxton announced on Sept. 20 that he is leading a coalition of 10 states in filing an amicus brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Florida’s law that attempts to regulate censorship on Big Tech social media platforms.
Paxton signed on behalf of Texas, joining the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, and South Carolina who have also filed an amicus brief in support of Florida’s law.
“The regulation of big tech censorship will inevitably suppress the ideas and beliefs of millions of Americans,” Paxton said in a statement. “I will defend the First Amendment and ensure that conservative voices have the right to be heard. Big Tech does not have the authority to police the expressions of people whose political viewpoint they simply disagree with.”
Florida’s SB 7072 law allows Floridians to take legal action against Big Tech platforms if they censor a user’s content without consistent standards.
The new bill also prevents Big Tech from banning Floridian political candidates. Social media companies that deplatform candidates for statewide office will be fined $250,000 a day. The fine is $25,000 per day when deplatforming candidates for other offices.
Big Tech companies that violate the law can be brought to trial for monetary damage, and the state’s attorney general can litigate companies that don’t comply with the law under Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in May but District Judge Robert Hinkle in June granted a temporary injunction preventing the governor from implementing the law after two Internet trade groups—NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association— filed a lawsuit.
The trade groups argued the law may violate the First Amendment by compelling social media platforms to host offensive speech they otherwise would not and by interfering with their editorial policies.
The coalition in its amicus brief said the district court’s First Amendment analysis is “riddled with errors.”
“It veered off course from the outset by concluding that S.B. 7072 regulates speech when that law instead regulates conduct that is unprotected by the First Amendment: social media platforms’ arbitrary application of their content moderation policies,” the coalition wrote.
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed Texas’s House Bill 20—similar to Florida’s law—which protects Texans from wrongful censorship on social media platforms.
House Bill 20 prevents social media companies with more than 50 million monthly users, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, from banning users based on their political beliefs. The attorney general would also be able to take legal action on behalf of Texas residents that were banned or blocked by a platform due to such discrimination.
“We will always defend the freedom of speech in Texas,” Abbott said. “Social media websites have become our modern-day public square. They are a place for healthy public debate where information should be able to flow freely—but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas. That is wrong, and we will not allow it in Texas. I thank Senator Bryan Hughes, Representative Briscoe Cain, and the Texas Legislature for ensuring that House Bill 20 reached my desk during the second special session.”
1/2
— 𝒜 𝒫𝓇𝒶𝓎𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒫𝒶𝓉𝓇𝒾𝑜𝓉 (@carolinasassie) September 27, 2021
Texas Attorney General Paxton announced that he is leading a coalition of 10 states in filing an amicus brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Florida’s law that attempts to regulate censorship on Big Tech social media platforms. pic.twitter.com/dhTHiF1rNc
— Osler (@osler78) September 2, 2021
Some firefighters have told their unions they won’t abide by Gov. Inslee’s mandate to get vaccinated. The WA State Council of Firefighters warns about not having enough firefighters, paramedics, and EMTs if the policy does not change. #waleg
— WA Senate Republicans (@WashingtonSRC) August 27, 2021
Read: https://t.co/5uAo3pEbNc pic.twitter.com/PVm7lmxdI9
Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine Halted in Japan, Contamination, Fire Fighters FIGHT BACKhttps://t.co/pPyfAELx6q
— Rapid_GT99 🏁🏎️💨💨💨 👀 (@rapidgator99) August 26, 2021
ICYMI - Oregon Vaccine Mandate Could Lead to Mass Exodus of Firefighters and Paramedics Across the State https://t.co/K2M4fL116V
— Thomas Paine (@Thomas1774Paine) September 2, 2021
More than 200 employees of Gainesville, Florida, have filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the city's requirement that its workers receive COVID-19 vaccines or be fired, saying it violates their constitutional rights. https://t.co/Fk4MNYNDhO
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) August 30, 2021
More than 200 employees of Gainesville, Florida, have filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the city's requirement that its workers receive COVID-19 vaccines or be fired, saying it violates their constitutional rights. https://t.co/Fk4MNYNDhO
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) August 30, 2021
More than 200 employees of Gainesville, Florida, have filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the city's requirement that its workers receive COVID-19 vaccines or be fired, saying it violates their constitutional rights. https://t.co/Fk4MNYNDhO
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) August 30, 2021
More than 200 employees of Gainesville, Florida, have filed a lawsuit seeking to strike down the city's requirement that its workers receive COVID-19 vaccines or be fired, saying it violates their constitutional rights. https://t.co/Fk4MNYNDhO
— Reuters Legal (@ReutersLegal) August 30, 2021
— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) August 26, 2021
Across the state of Florida, there are 14 monoclonal antibody treatment sites set up to serve COVID-19 positive Floridians—with more to come.
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) August 22, 2021
For more information, visit: https://t.co/7Qq1sNv1dQ pic.twitter.com/rzGX60YtgS
Fauci promotes monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 that Gov. DeSantis has touted for weeks
Fauci promotes monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19 that Gov. DeSantis has touted for weeks https://t.co/Lcnp0MO63F
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) August 25, 2021
Orange County, Fla., has 8,000 missing students. The Miami-Dade County public schools have 16,000 fewer than last year. Los Angeles Unified — the nation's second-largest school system — is down nearly 11,000. Charlotte-Mecklenburg in North Carolina has 5,000 missing. Utah, Virginia and Washington are reporting declines statewide.
Comprehensive national information is not yet available, but research by NPR and our affiliate stations, along with country-wide media coverage, indicates decreases in enrollment in hundreds of school districts across 20 states. The decline is a departure from recent patterns in each of these districts: big and small, rich and poor, urban and rural. Data from the U.S. over the past 15 years. The Department of Education reveals that the rule has been small and consistent annual rises in public school enrollment.
These fall enrollment declines come six months after schools across the nation shut their doors in the midst of coronavirus lockdowns, as schools have been scrambling to expand remote learning offers and implement safety measures to allow buildings to open for in-person classes, often only a few days a week. The start of the year has been marked in many parts of the world by numerous changes in plans, widespread uncertainty between teachers and families, deep security issues, and concerns about unequal access to technology.
The enrollment declines are particularly evident in kindergarten and pre-K in many countries. We reached out to more than 100 districts for our coverage and heard back from more than 60. The average decrease in kindergarten enrollment in our sample was 16 percent.
And school districts stand to lose money as well.
Public schools are generally funded by states on a per-pupil basis. The first week of October marks the first of two "count days" in many states — a day in the fall, right at the start of the new fiscal year, where school districts must submit an official enrollment count to determine their funding for the subsequent year.
Data show that compulsory lockdowns have had a high cost, with a questionable impact on transmission.
In 1932, Justice Louis Brandeis of the Supreme Court famously referred to the states as "democracy laboratories." Different states can test different policies and can learn from each other. In 2020, that proved valid. Governors in various states react to the COVID-19 pandemic at different times and in different ways. Sweeping shutdowns were ordered by some states, such as California. A more targeted approach was taken by others, such as Florida. Others, such as South Dakota, transmitted data but had no lockdowns at all.
DeSantis Drops Statewide COVID Bans, Allows full capacity football. At the moment, SEC football is played in reduced-capacity stadiums. However, one program now has the green light from the state to modify it.
In the last few months, social media has been buzzing with people who claim they left a COVID-19 test site because of a long line and then received a positive test result. The fake news media has been absolutely silent on this issue. We found several stories covered by the press below.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said he has become aware of people in Florida claiming they went to get tested for coronavirus, left for various reasons before getting swabbed, and then received positive results. Dozens of Florida labs still report only positive COVID tests, skewing positivity rate. Florida is also willing to investigate rumors about positive COVID results with no actual tests.
The NFL had 77 positive Covid-19 tests from 11 teams re-examined by a New Jersey lab after false positives, and all those tests came back negative. The league asked the New Jersey lab BioReference to investigate the results, and those 77 tests are being re-tested once more to make sure they were false positives.
Staff at the CVS rapid testing site in Lincoln, Rhode Island told a local healthcare worker she tested negative for COVID-19. So why did state health officials call her two days later and say she was positive for the virus? The discrepancy first presented itself on the woman’s car windshield. After securing a time slot at the Twin River site last on Wednesday and swabbing the inside of her nose, she sat and waited in her car. About 35 minutes later, she said, her phone rang and a staff member told her she was negative for the novel coronavirus that’s infected thousands of Rhode Islanders. Workers at the testing site put a form letter on her windshield with the results: “You were seen today for COVID-19 Point of Care Testing and have tested negative.”
California Woman Receives Positive COVID-19 Diagnosis at CVS Site Despite Never Being Tested. A rumor quickly making the rounds on Twitter and Facebook is claiming that an LA-area resident tested positive for COVID-19 at a CVS Minute Clinic site in La Habra despite never actually attending their appointment to take the test. The images being circulated include a letter from CVS allegedly confirming the result, and though the actual content of the letter is for the most part blurry and illegible, that isn’t stopping the image from being widely shared on social media. A closer look reveals that the original post came from Instagram account @carolina_gss and that the letter from CVS appears to be legitimate and confirms a 'abnormal/positive' COVID-19 test result. According to the Instagram user’s story highlights, CVS did get in touch shortly afterward to apologize for the mix-up but failed to offer an explanation as to how this error may have occurred.
It has been brought to the attention of the Marshall Police Department a letter indicating residents at Deer Creek Apartment complex had tested positive for COVID-19 had been distributed to the tenants. The department would like to advise the community that this is not true and no one at that complex has been tested for COVID-19.
This form mistakenly handed out and placed on each apartment door. Georgia nurses accuse hospital of manipulating COVID-19 test results. The lawsuit filed against Landmark Hospital in Athens has many allegations including nurses being instructed to swab incorrectly to give false results. The nurses said the hospital instructed staff to take samples from inside someone’s throat, but send the samples to a lab run by Piedmont Hospital that only tests nasal swabs, knowing the results would turn out negative for COVID-19.
Officials with Scottsdale Police Department are asking people in the city to be careful after reports of scams related to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to statements posted to the department's website and on their verified Facebook page, several Scottsdale residents have received a letter in the mail that claims to be from Maricopa County Public Health. The letter also claims residents who test positive or "show abnormal readings" will be taken to the former Tent City jail facility for a minimum of 45 days of quarantine.
A Dover man and small business owner in Sussex County is speaking out after the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) presented him with ‘false positive’ coronavirus test results after he had already tested negative.
A disturbing fake letter is circulating on Calfsocial media, claiming to be from the state of California Department of Social Services. The letter claims if a person is on state-assisted benefits, like Cal Fresh and Medical, the entire household must be tested for COVID-19. It gives a fake website on where to receive free testing - and says failure to do so by June 1st could result in suspended benefits. The last paragraph states if they test positive, kids under the age of 18 would be removed from the home and placed in foster care until they have recovered.
A man in the Dayton-area, for example, recently said he got a letter saying he'd tested negative after signing up for a test he didn't end up taking. And the Mercer County Health Department said it mistakenly sent a letter instructing a man to quarantine for 10 days after he was examined, but not tested, for COVID symptoms.
Please add any new stories below in the comments.
My mums friend booked a COVID test, went to the test site but the queue was ridiculous, she couldn’t be bothered to wait so she turned round and went home without doing one - and got a POSITIVE test result emailed to her a couple days later ???? TELL ME THATS NOT DODGY????
— beth (@bethmeakin) September 28, 2020
On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order permitting restaurants and bars to start running at 100 percent capacity immediately.
The step suggests that the state is transitioning into reopening phase 3. In terms of what local governments can do to limit operations, the order handles restaurants and bars differently.
"There would be no restrictions," he said, from the state of Florida.
DeSantis said that he completely expects the state in February to host a "full stadium Super Bowl." It's The Super Bowl.
"We're anticipating a complete Super Bowl, and we're going to prove that we can do that," he said.
If a local government Covid-19 emergency order limiting restaurant to less than 100% of its indoor capacity but above 50%, the government must explain why the limitation is necessary for public health and quantify the economic impact of the limits.
"If a local (government) restricts between 50 and 100, they've got to provide the justification and they've got to identify what the costs are involved with doing that is," DeSantis said.
"Every business has a right to operate... you can’t just say 'no' after six months and have people twisting in the wind,” he said.
The order also bars cities and counties from ordering restaurants to close, unless they can justify a closure for economic or health reasons.
Mayor Jerry Demings of Orange County said he was surprised that he did not know about DeSantis' executive order until Friday's press conference.
"As we deal with this pandemic, everything happens at a local level, this is where the rubber meets the road. And in order for us to be effective at dealing with the virus, we have to have good communications across the state," Demings said, adding that his office received calls from "numerous businesses" seeking clarity following the governor's statements.
"It really isn't a good look for government, when we are not all on the same sheet of music and so I just hope that the government does better with that," Demings said.
DeSantis, in "an act of executive grace," also suspended "all outstanding fines and penalties that have been applied against individuals" associated with pandemic-related mandates, like mask requirements.
"I think we need to get away from trying to penalize people for social distancing," DeSantis said. "All these fines we're going to hold in abeyance and hope that we can move forward in a way that's more collaborative."
Vulnerable Populations
Individuals older than 65 years of age and individuals with a serious underlying medical condition (such as chronic lung disease, moderate-to-severe asthma, serious heart conditions, immune-compromised status, cancer, diabetes, severe obesity, renal failure, and liver disease) can resume public interactions but should practice social distancing, minimizing exposure to social settings where distancing may not be practical unless precautionary measures are observed. Vulnerable populations should affirmatively inform their employer that they are a member of the vulnerable population so that their employer can plan accordingly.
Social Gatherings
Non-vulnerable populations should consider minimizing time spent in crowded environments
Travel
Non-essential travel may continue.
EMPLOYERS
Telework
Employees should resume unrestricted staffing of worksites and implement the final phasing in of employees returning to work. For vulnerable populations, teleworking can be considered.
Employee Screening
Employers should take prudent and practical measures to ensure employees do not enter the premises if they believe they are infected with COVID-19 or show symptoms of influenza-like illness.
Travel
Employees should resume non-essential travel and adhere to CDC guidelines regarding isolation following travel.
Local Government Meetings
These meetings should return to in-person quorum and public participation for local government bodies.
OTHER
Bars, Pubs and Nightclubs
Bars, pubs, and nightclubs that derive more than 50 percent of sales from alcohol should operate at full capacity with limited social distancing protocols. Businesses should maintain adequate sanitation practices among employees and patrons during all hours of operation. Menus, if laminated, should be cleaned after each usage. Paper menus should be designed for single-use and then disposed of immediately after use.
Restaurants
Restaurants and foodservice establishments may operate at full capacity with limited social distancing protocols. Businesses should maintain adequate sanitation practices among employees and patrons during all hours of operation. Menus, if laminated, should continue to be cleaned after each usage. Paper menus shall be designed for single-use and then disposed of immediately after use.
Gyms and Fitness Centers
Gyms and fitness centers should open to full capacity but should maintain adequate
sanitation practices among employees and patrons during all hours of operation.
Recreation
State Parks: State parks should be fully opened, including overnight accommodations.
Public Beaches: Beaches should remain fully open.
Large Venues: (i.e. movie theaters, concert halls, auditoriums, bowling alleys, arcades, playhouses, casinos) These venues should re-open fully with limited social distancing protocols.
Large Sporting Events and Theme Parks
Large spectator sporting events should consider reducing capacity with limited social distancing protocols.
Theme parks may return to normal operations with limited social distancing protocols.
Vacation Rentals
Vacation Rentals should resume normal operating procedures but should continue to thoroughly clean and disinfect the property between rentals.
Personal Services Businesses
Personal Services Businesses, such as cosmetology salons, barbershops, and nail salons, should operate under full capacity but should consider the following mitigation measures:
Continue to maintain adequate sanitation practices for employees and patrons.
Regularly clean and disinfect working stations and equipment between interactions with customers to the greatest frequency feasible.
Remove all unnecessary, frequent-touch items such as magazines, newspapers, service menus, any other unnecessary paper products and décor from customer service areas.
Retail Businesses
Operators of retail businesses should operate at full capacity but should continue to maintain adequate sanitation practices for employees and patrons.
