
Plotting a course for ethics reform in FL
One of Florida's largest newspapers welcomes the state legislature's pursuit of ethics reform. In this recent editorial, the Sun Sentinel offers lawmakers some advice:
... the Legislature would be smart to improve the U.S. "honest services" law with a detailed Florida version rather than to copy the federal one. The federal law has served anti-corruption efforts well, but it appears headed for possible undoing by the U.S. Supreme Court for constitutionality concerns.
The newspaper says the legislature should be more than capable of writing a new ethics law that is specific enough to survive any constitutional or other legal challenges:
If the state can delineate a whole book of driving statutes that dictate everything from when to use your headlights to where to park your car, surely it can specify what warrants a range of criminal behavior for public officials, from voting on issues where there's a personal financial stake to accepting bags stuffed with cash in exchange for a vote.
In fact, those are such no-brainer acts of criminal conduct, it's almost laughable that they're not already outlawed by state statute, and it says something about a neglectful Legislature that they're not.


