A closely divided Florida Supreme Court struck down two juvenile-curfew
laws in Southwest Florida on Thursday, jeopardizing similar ones
throughout the state, including one in Miami-Dade County that served as
a model for others statewide. In the 4-3 opinion, the majority of
justices said the laws in Tampa and neighboring Pinellas Park were too
broad because they targeted minors who committed no other crime than
being night owls, and because they criminally punished parents and even
shop owners who condoned or couldn't control kids' curfew-breaking. The
91-page opinion and its dissents concern a number of municipalities in
Florida that passed juvenile curfew laws after Miami-Dade's ordinance
survived a challenge at the appellate court level in the mid-1990s. Key
West, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale have laws similar to those in
Miami-Dade, Tampa and Pinellas Park. All have slightly different
language but seek the same thing: to keep minors off the streets after
11 p.m. or midnight. The other laws may stay on the books unless
challenged. The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued Miami-Dade
in the mid-1990s and brought the lead suit in Pinellas Park, said the
laws have a target: young minorities. Two of the three youths who
challenged Pinellas Park's restrictions are black. ''There is a radical
difference between the well-intentioned and high-sounding words of the
ordinance and the way it ends up being enforced on a day-to-day basis
-- which is typically against young black men,'' said Howard Simon, the
ACLU's executive director in Florida. [more]
Article originally appeared on (http://brownwatch.com/).
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