UPDATE 2/27/15: Yesterday the City of Miami Commissioners approved a $975,000 payment to the Estate of Travis McNeil to settle a civil rights case stemming from McNeil’s fatal 2011 shooting by a Miami police officer. Mr. McNeil’s Estate had already reached a $150,000 settlement with federal agencies who were also participating in the operation that resulted […]
Eleventh Circuit Confirms Suspicionless Drug Testing Unconstitutional
On appeal for a second time, the Eleventh Circuit upheld Judge Scriven’s order and agreed the drug testing program was unconstitutional, affirming the permanent injunction. Read the ACLU’s statement, or you can view media coverage here. Today, a three-judge panel at the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a 2011 Florida law mandating […]
FJI Assists ACLU Attorneys in Defending Historic Pottinger Agreement to Protect Homeless Individuals
The Pottinger Agreement is a consent decree entered in 1998 between the City of Miami and ACLU attorneys after a decade of hard-fought litigation and intense negotiations. The Agreement prevents City of Miami police officers from arresting homeless individuals for committing certain life-sustaining conduct misdemeanors in public if there is no available shelter bed to […]
Miami’s Homeless Could Lose Some Rights If Judge Agrees with Settlement
Miami’s homeless, who since 1998 have benefitted from special life-sustaining privileges not afforded most residents, will lose some of those exceptions if a federal judge signs off on an agreement reached by the city of Miami and the American Civil Liberties Union. No longer will the homeless be allowed to set fires in parks to […]
FJI Ends 30-year-old Consent Decree with Monroe County Jail that Drastically Improved Conditions
First filed in 1980, the case of McIntyre v. Perryam resulted in a consent decree against the Monroe County Jail in Key West for its horrific and unsanitary conditions. The buildings were infested with vermin, the plumbing hardly worked, fights were commonplace, medical care was atrocious or nonexistent, and inmates went months without outdoor rec […]
FJI & ACLU Reach Settlement with Santa Rosa County to Repeal Postcard Only Policy from Jail
When the Santa Rosa County Jail adopted a policy that required all outgoing correspondence from inmates to be on postcards—no letters in envelopes—FJI, co-counseling with the ACLU of Florida, filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of all jail inmates, alleging that the policy violated the First Amendment. After months of litigation, the parties reached […]
FJI, FILS, Holland & Knight Achieve Historic Victory for Incarcerated People with Mental Illnesses
This case resulted in one of the most significant victories for prisoners’ rights in Florida, and allowed FJI to collaborate with the law firm of Holland & Knight, as well as Florida Institutional Legal Services. The three firms filed suit on behalf of eight incarcerated people with serious mental illnesses who were being sprayed with […]
FJI & LSGMI Achieve Policy Change and $254,000 Payout from Hialeah Housing Authority
The eight courageous plaintiffs in this case all attempted to apply for Section 8 housing vouchers from the Hialeah Housing Authority (HHA), but encountered numerous obstacles. The HHA refused to make accommodations in the application process for people with disabilities, requested decades-old documents that they were not permitted to request, and otherwise made it difficult […]