By Katherine Van de Bogart, Esq

In November 18, 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation that creates new laws regarding COVID-19 vaccine mandates, including Florida Statute § 381.00317, entitled “Private employer COVID-19 vaccination mandates prohibited.”

Pursuant to a press release published by the Governor, the new laws “will protect Floridians from losing their jobs due to Covid-19 vaccine mandates and protect parents’ rights to make healthcare decisions for students.”[1] Since Fla. Stat. § 381.00317 involves a private employee’s rights in regard to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, it is important for private Florida businesses to ensure they are in compliance with the statute to avoid violations, and worse, costly fines. This article will summarize the newly enacted law, and how it could affect private businesses in Florida.

URGENT! Pending bills are possibly going to be heard by the subcommittees in the Senate as early as next week

Bills have been introduced in the both the Florida House and Senate known as “The “Dorothy L. Hukill Financial Literacy Act” (SB 1054 Financial Literacy Instruction in Public Schools, and HB 1115: High School Graduation Requirements in Personal Finance). The bills, although not exactly the same, are very similar. The proposed legislation would mandate a one-half credit of instruction in personal financial literacy and money management for all students. 

The Senate bill was recently referred to the Senate Education and Senate Rules Committees. BLS MEMBERS, WE NEED YOUR HELP!! We ask that you write to each of the senators on these committees to express our support for the legislation. Our Task Force has made it easy for you to help in this endeavor. We have drafted a sample letter in MS Word, and posted it in the BLS Financial Literacy Task Force webpage, which you can find here. We have also posted a list of the members of these committees together with their physical and email addresses of where you would need to send each letter.

All you have to do is download the sample letter, modify it to your writing style if you so choose, address it to each of the senators, print the letters on your letterhead, and just sign and mail (and/or email) them. THAT’S IT! IT IS AS SIMPLE AS THAT! 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!

Carlos E. Sardi

Chair, Financial Literacy Task Force

Last year, in response to the Section's Diversity & Inclusion CLE Speaker Panel Policy, the Florida Supreme Court, sua sponte, amended the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar to preclude continuing legal education credit for "any course submitted by a sponsor, including a section of the Florida Bar, that uses quotas based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, national origin, disability, or sexual orientation in the selection of course faculty or participants." This Section, along with many other organizations and individuals, submitted a Comment in response to the Court's amendment. The vast majority of the comments asked the Court to reconsider the amendment. The Court denied oral argument. On December 16, 2021, the Court issued its Opinion in response to the Comments, making two minor changes to the rule effective January 1, 2022, but rejecting the substantive arguments asserted by commenters. Justice Labarga dissented from the Opinion, citing many of the arguments raised by the Section. The Section is disappointed at this outcome although perhaps not surprised. This decision will no doubt be the subject of conversation during the IMF Committee Meeting at our Mid-Year meeting at 1:00 pm on January 26th. If you would like to be part of that conversation, please register to attend the meeting via Zoom 

All members are welcome. Time is running out to register.

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