Weekly Roundup: State Fights Universal Health Care, Governor Goes to Canada

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Florida officials took their “Don’t Tread on Me” health-care flag to Atlanta this week to urge federal judges to throw out a controversial health insurance law Florida says is un-American at its core.

In a legal battle pitting Florida and half the country against the Patient Protection Act (aka Obamacare) attorneys for the state paid their respects to federal judges at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, kind of a courtesy call during a journey that most expect will terminate at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Wednesday’s much-watched arguments on whether the feds can force citizens to carry health insurance highlighted a litigation-soaked week as lawsuits were filed on a number of fronts by groups unhappy with a host of issues, from offshore oil drilling to gun rights.

State education officials, meanwhile, continued their quest to find a successor to Florida Education Commissioner Eric Smith, who stepped down Friday and will be temporarily replaced by John Winn as interim commissioner, a repeat performer tapped as a search for a permanent replacement continues.

Finally, Gov. Rick Scott brought his “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs” bandwagon to the state’s northern neighbor as he wrapped up a weeklong Canadian trade mission with the news that he’d landed 110 jobs to reduce the ranks of the 1 million Floridians who don’t have one.

HEALTH CARE:

While Scott was in the land of universal health care, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit appeals court on Wednesday peppered attorneys with questions in a case that could decide the future of last year's health care overhaul for the United States.

Florida has spearheaded legal efforts on behalf of itself and 25 other states to strike down the law that will require almost all Americans to have health insurance starting in 2014 -- a requirement known widely as the "individual mandate.''

With Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and former Attorney General Bill McCollum sitting at the front of the courtroom, lawyers for states critical of the plan said it is unprecedented for Congress to force Americans to buy a product such as health insurance. They disputed that the U.S. Constitution allows such power, an issue that is central to the sweeping health-care law.

Joel Dubina, chief judge of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said early in the hearing that the individual mandate is the heart of the case, as lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice tried to convince the panel that Congress was well within its rights to require it as part of the regulation of interstate commerce. Uninsured people seek care at hospital emergency rooms, shifting billions of dollars a year in costs to other people who pay them through increased insurance premiums.

"Congress is entitled to wide deference in the way it deals with the problem,'' said Acting U.S. Solicitor General Neal Kumar Katyal.

Attorneys representing the states say the notion that Congress can force someone to buy a product, in this case health insurance, is anti-thematic to the concept of individual liberty.

"They (uninsured people) are not engaged in commerce,'' said Paul Clement, a lead attorney for the opponents, which also include 25 other states.”They're sitting in their living rooms. They're not doing anything.''

The case is perhaps the most widely watched legal challenge to the landmark federal law, which President Obama and Congress approved in March 2010. The appeal stems from a January decision by Pensacola federal judge Roger Vinson that the law is unconstitutional.

McCollum --- who filed the case immediately after Obama signed it --- said it raises constitutional questions about congressional powers that go far beyond health care.

"This is a real, real big reach,'' he said.

Wednesday’s hearing was the most visible of a handful of legal challenges fought throughout the week. On Monday a group of physicians filed suit in a Miami federal court to nullify a controversial measure backed by the National Rifle Association that prohibits health practitioners from routinely asking their patients if they own guns and have them properly stored.

In a battle pitting the First Amendment against the Second Amendment, attorneys representing some pediatricians and family doctors are asking U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke to throw out the recently approved measure (HB 155) they say steps illegally between a patient and their physician by limiting the types of questions practitioners can ask.

Later, environmentalists filed another federal lawsuit in Miami, this one claiming federal officials overseeing a Shell Oil request to drill in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico are relying on false assumptions and accepting inadequate safety standards to prevent a repeat of the BP Deepwater Horizon spill.

Less than a year after oil stopped flowing from the worst spill in U.S. history, a coalition of environmental groups, including Sierra Club, the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Gulf Restoration Network, filed suit to stop federal officials from giving the company permission to drill in deep water about 70 miles off the Louisiana coast.

On the state level, Attorney General Pam Bondi’s office said this week she plans to appeal a Broward County judge’s ruling that tickets issued by police officers for running a red light are unconstitutional because the fine is higher than that levied when a driver is ticketed by a red-light camera. It’s a weird twist in the ongoing battle of red-light cameras.

EDUCATION COMMISH SEARCH:

More than two dozen people have applied for Florida's top education job but only a handful are likely to get greater scrutiny by the State Board of Education. The state has struggled over the last two months to find qualified applicants for the job and had to extend the deadline after the first round didn't yield as many experienced candidates as the search firm wanted. In the first round, 19 applied. The second time, two of the original 19 withdrew and nine more submitted applications.

Among the newest applicants for the job are Gerard Robinson, the secretary of education for Virginia; Bret Schundler, who used to be the New Jersey education commissioner before being fired by Gov. Chris Christie; and Florida trial attorney William "W.C." Gentry, who sits on the Duval County School Board. The search firm Ray and Associates was hired in April to recruit Florida's next education commissioner. Eric Smith, the current education commissioner, said he would resign effective June 10.

In the meantime John Winn, a seasoned former education commissioner who held the job under Gov. Jeb Bush, is returning to Tallahassee as interim education commissioner. Winn resigned his post at the National Math and Science Initiative in Dallas.

In one of his final acts as commissioner, Smith gave tentative approval to a new formula used to evaluate some teachers that will eventually be used to determine their salaries. This new matrix includes test score data but also elements such as disability status, class size and attendance, which can impact a student’s performance.

A statewide committee of teachers, parents and administrators spent months determining what, besides test scores, should be considered when determining a teacher’s effectiveness in the classroom.

POLITICS:

Election news continues to trickle in as races heat up for 2012. Outspoken Bradenton Republican Sen. Mike Bennett filed the paperwork to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa for the District 11 congressional seat. Bennett’s most recent notoriety came as the leader of efforts to overhaul the state’s growth management system to return control of development decisions to local government.

Former Ruth’s Chris Steak House CEO Craig Miller is “leaning toward” getting into the Republican contest for the U.S. Senate in Florida. Miller, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2010, lives in the Orlando area. The GOP field so far to take on Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson next year includes former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, Senate President Mike Haridopolos, and former state Rep. Adam Hasner.

Candidates for the U.S. presidency are already racking up frequent flyer miles to Florida. President Barack Obama will be in Miami on Monday afternoon for a fund-raiser for the Obama Victory Fund 2012, the organization announced.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney will spend three days in the state next week. The former Massachusetts governor will be in Boca Raton for fund-raisers on Tuesday evening followed by a full day of fund-raising and events on Wednesday. He ends his swing with a series of private fund-raisers with various fund-raisers on Thursday.

HAWKES’ (TEMPERATURE) RISE:

Judge Paul Hawkes of the 1st District Court of Appeal took a legal swing at his accusers this week, calling a Judicial Qualifications Commission report, critical of his performance, a legally shoddy hatchet job that should be dismissed.

The motion, filed by attorney Kenneth Sukhia, also says Hawkes plans to ask that the special counsel charged with prosecuting the case be dismissed for omitting critical information from the charges filed last month and for calling Hawkes one of former Gov. Jeb Bush's "stooges.”

Hawkes has been lampooned for his involvement in the 1st DCA building, dubbed the “Taj Mahal” for its opulent construction. The judge also faces allegations of destroying public records and behavior unbecoming to the bench.

JOBS, JOBS, JOBS:

Gov. Rick Scott spent the week in Canada, meeting with more than 120 company executives in his pursuit of jobs. Promising 700,000 new jobs by the time he ends a second term, Scott praised decisions by Toronto Sky Aviation Inc. and UCC Steelwork Connections Inc. to move some operations to Florida. The news follows an earlier announcement by Canadian security company Garda that it would relocate its U.S. headquarters from California to Boca Raton. In all. the companies will bring 210 jobs to Florida.

“With three jobs announcements in one week, Florida is clearly on the right path,” Scott said in a statement Friday.

During his weeklong sojourn in the summer nesting ground of the Florida snowbird, Scott did not take credit for an unrelated announcement from the Dave & Buster’s restaurant chain that it would hire 300 people for its new Orlando location. Regardless, we added it to this week’s tally.

STORY OF THE WEEK: Florida, the lead litigant in a lawsuit filed by 26 states, took its fight against a federal health insurance mandate to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, a stop in a journey likely to end in the U.S. Supreme Court.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “With three jobs announcements in one week, Florida is clearly on the right path” -- Gov. Rick Scott in a statement announcing the creation of 210 jobs in Florida.