Florida travel to Cuba companies victorious
Court rebukes state’s unconstitutional statute
The information that follows was taken from a press release by attorneys’ for plaintiffs in the case. At Progreso Weekly we ask that appropriate authorities investigate the actions taken by Governor Crist, House Speaker Marco Rubio and the law’s main sponsor, State Rep. David Rivera, and others who brought forward this law which most knew had no chance in any legitimate court in this country. For strictly political reasons, the aforementioned have cost Florida taxpayers more than a million dollars in bills to carry forward this travesty.)
Alvaro F. Fernandez
The Honorable Alan Gold of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida today (April 14) issued a final order striking down the Florida Travel Act Amendments as unconstitutional and a violation of the Supremacy Clause.
In 2008, the Florida legislature amended the Florida Travel Act in an attempt to end travel to Cuba from Florida. The law imposed penalties on Cuban American travel agencies and charter companies doing business with Cuba. Governor Charlie Crist signed the legislation. The law required travel agencies engaged in travel to Cuba to post bonds that were 10 to 25 times higher than those required of other travel agencies. It made any violation of any state or federal law a third degree felony if it involved travel to Cuba, but punished violators engaged in travel to other countries with misdemeanors. It required far higher registration fees and imposed many other onerous and punitive requirements on companies involved in the travel business to Cuba.
In striking down the law, the Court cited the United States government’s public opposition to the Florida statute. The Court found that the Florida Travel Act amendments interfere with federal law and regulations, and the foreign policy of the United States. The Court also noted the recent changes in U.S. policy in lifting travel restrictions to Cuba for Cuban Americans and in blunt terms stated:
“The State of Florida is not entitled to adopt a foreign policy under our Constitution or interfere with the exclusive prerogative of the United States to establish a carefully balanced approach to relations with foreign countries, including Cuba.”
The Court entered a permanent injunction against the amendment and a declaratory judgment declaring the law unconstitutional.
Ira J. Kurzban, lead counsel for Plaintiff charter companies and travel agencies, hailed the judge’s decision as a “clear, unequivocal statement that the Florida legislature has no business conducting its own foreign policy. At a time when the state lacks resources,” he said, “Florida legislators should be focused on the issues that are important to Floridians instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to uphold clearly unconstitutional laws such as the Travel Act amendments.”
Que bueno que la era de hielo termino para la familia Cubana y los que de una forma u otra seguimos creyendo en la libertad del los individuos.
Que bueno que la reprecion al fin termino para la familia cubana que le estaban violando el derecho a ser libre en la mal llamada tierra de libertad.
Que bueno que mi voto conto esta ves y no fue robado.
que bueno seria que pararan de deportar a los inmigrantes trabajadores y deportaran a los acusados de terroismo y que viven libres en Miami.
Gracias al cielo y a OBAMA por este cambio en bien de la familia Cubana
What can you expect from a David Rivera that his ambition in life is to be mayor of the city of Cienfuegos in Cuba.He was born in the Island of Crete and have never visited CUBA.For non Cubans MR.Rivera is a CRETINO for the Island of CRETE ask a cuban friend what that means.
Why does Miami keep re-electing these poor examples of state legislators?
I represented the interest of many of the Tampa based travel agencies whose daily bread was about to be destroyed by this ridiculous law. One State Representative, Michael Scionti of Tampa stood up to both Rubio and Rivera and engaged a debate clearly rebuking their effort. They still pushed for it. I spoke to the Govenors office and offered comments on the newly passed law which was awaiting the Govenors signature. The fact that this law was unconstitutional was made very clear and still the Govenor signed it. The Rubios and Riveras who claim to represent the citizens of the state should be held accountable. Many legal minds placed them on notice that this law was bad for so many obvious reasons. Yet they pushed their own agenda and forgot about the MAJORITY of Floridas citizens. It must be known that these petty legilators have hijacked the policies toward Cuba here and in Washington for nearly 50 years. It is time that their own special interest be exposed for what it is, selfish political gain. The Court has spoken on this issue and they lost. The voters will speak next, hopefully they will be 0-2. Peace!