“A federal judge on Thursday blocked part of a sweeping anti-protest bill enacted by Florida Republicans and Governor Ron DeSantis, writing that officials’ reaction to peaceful protests in the summer of 2020 is akin to the unlawful racist backlash seen during 1960s protests against Jim Crow laws. Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee said that the governor made an embarrassing mistake – or worse – when his offices ‘conflated a community celebration of a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery with a protest'” Reuters reports.
“He issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the new definition of rioting under the Combating Public Disorder Act. DeSantis’ lawyers in defending the law had submitted to the court a Facebook post as evidence that Black Floridians continue to freely exercise their protest rights – except the flyer actually announced a ‘Black Joy’ event celebrating America’s first official Juneteenth holiday. Protesters’ fears about the law are ‘well-founded’ if DeSantis included the post ‘to imply that any gathering of Black people in a public space is a de facto protest,’ Walker said.”