Supreme Court continues mulling hot issues

By JIM SAUNDERS
THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA

THE CAPITAL, TALLAHASSEE, July 7, 2016.......... The Florida Supreme Court moved quietly into an annual summer break Thursday.

Releasing its last regular batch of opinions until Aug. 25, the court did not drop any bombshells. That left unresolved questions about issues such as the constitutionality of the state's death-penalty sentencing laws.

The Supreme Court moves at its own pace. Even with the summer break, it could dribble out opinions before Aug. 25 --- a process known as "out of calendar" opinion releases. Regardless, justices go into the break facing a pile of high-profile cases.

Here are five examples of issues pending in the court:

--- DEATH PENALTY: Justices have been inundated with arguments in recent months about Florida's death-penalty sentencing system. The arguments are rooted in a January U.S. Supreme Court ruling that essentially said the state's system was unconstitutional because it gave too much power to judges, instead of juries, in sentencing inmates to death.

The Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott scrambled to approve changes to address the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, which came in a case known as Hurst v. Florida. But in cases involving numerous Death Row inmates, the Florida Supreme Court is trying to sort out questions such as whether the changes approved by the Legislature and Scott meet constitutional tests.

--- SLOT MACHINES: The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments last month in a case that has major implications for the gambling industry and for communities in various parts of the state. The case centers on whether Gretna Racing, a pari-mutuel facility in rural Gadsden County, should be able to offer slot machines without the express approval of the Legislature.

The ultimate ruling likely will come down to how justices interpret a 2009 gambling law. Gretna Racing contends the law permits counties to hold referendums to allow slot machines --- an argument Gov. Rick Scott's administration and Attorney General Pam Bondi have disputed. The outcome will affect at least six counties where voters have approved slot machines in referendums. Those counties are Gadsden, Brevard, Hamilton, Lee, Palm Beach and Washington.

--- ABORTION: More than a year after lawmakers and Scott approved a measure requiring women to wait 24 hours before having abortions, the Supreme Court in the coming months will decide whether the law is constitutional.

Justices have not heard arguments in the case but in April temporarily blocked the waiting-period requirement from taking effect. Lower courts have been divided on the constitutionality of the measure. A Leon County circuit judge last year issued a temporary injunction against the law, but a three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal in February overturned that decision.

--- MEDICAL MALPRACTICE: In the latest chapter in a battle that goes back to the days of former Gov. Jeb Bush, the Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of limits on "non-economic" damages in medical-malpractice cases. Such limits were a centerpiece of a 2003 law, approved by Bush and the Legislature, that sought to lower malpractice-insurance costs.

The Supreme Court is weighing the constitutionality of the limits in a Broward County case involving a woman who went into surgery for carpal-tunnel syndrome and ended up with a perforated esophagus because of tubes inserted into her mouth and esophagus during the anesthesia process. Justices, who heard arguments last month, struck down damage caps in 2014 in a wrongful-death malpractice case involving a woman who died after giving birth in a Panhandle hospital. Details of the cases differ, however, including that Broward County lawsuit is a personal-injury case instead of a wrongful-death case.

GUNS: Amid a heated debate in Florida and across the country about gun laws, the Supreme Court is mulling the constitutionality of a state ban on people openly carrying firearms in public.

Florida allows residents to get licenses to carry concealed weapons, but it has long barred them from openly displaying guns. The Supreme Court last month heard a challenge to that restriction in a case that stems from the 2012 arrest of a man in Fort Pierce for openly carrying a gun in a holster. Gun-rights groups argue that the restriction violates the Second Amendment, but lower courts have upheld the law.