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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Courts - Florida Supreme Court rules Gov. Scott violated separation of powers

The Florida Supreme Court ruled August 16th in a 5-2 opinion that, per a long Miami Herald story reported by Janet Zink:

Gov. Rick Scott “overstepped his constitutional authority and violated the separation of powers” with an executive order freezing all pending rules until he could approve them.

In a 5-2 opinion, the court concluded that rule-making authority belongs to the Legislature, not the governor.

“The Legislature retains the sole right to delegate rulemaking authority to agencies,” the majority justices wrote, “and all provisions in [Scott’s executive orders] that operate to suspend rulemaking contrary to the Administrative Procedures Act constitute an encroachment upon a legislative function.”

The story includes a link to the 50-page opinion in Whiley v. Scott.

The WSJ Law Blog's Nathan Koppel had a post about the ruling on August 17th. Some quotes:

“The Legislature retains the sole right to delegate rulemaking authority to agencies,” the Florida high court held, “and all provisions in [Scott’s executive orders] that operate to suspend rulemaking contrary to the Administrative Procedures Act constitute an encroachment upon a legislative function.”

So far, Scott’s office of Regulatory Review has rejected a few dozen regulations, related to such procedures as record-keeping by home health aides, and has delayed many other rules, according to the Herald.

“This ruling seems very illogical,” a spokesman for the governor told the Law Blog. “These agency heads report directly to the governor and they are employed at the pleasure of the governor. It makes no sense that the governor can’t hold them accountable when it comes to rulemaking.” He added: “Gov Scott made a promise during his campaign that part of his plan to create jobs in this state was to get rid of onerous regulations and unnecessary red tape.”

Posted by Marcia Oddi on August 25, 2011 09:46 AM
Posted to Courts in general