Court ruling shields DeSantis from telling names
Plaintiff asked for IDs of influential conservatives
An appeals court Friday refused to reconsider a closely watched case about whether Gov. Ron DeSantis should be shielded from releasing records.
The 1st District Court of Appeal did not explain its decision to reject a rehearing request by attorneys for a person identified in court documents as J. Doe. The person filed a public-records request seeking information from DeSantis’ office about influential conservatives involved in discussions about appointing Florida Supreme Court justices.
In a subsequent lawsuit, Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey rejected the public-records request on a series of grounds, including that the governor had “executive privilege” that could be used to prevent release of certain documents. The appeals court in June sidestepped the potentially far-reaching issue about executive privilege but said Doe did not adequately justify filing the lawsuit anonymously. In a motion for rehearing filed last month, Doe’s attorneys focused, in part, on the anonymity issue.
“A person has the right to anonymously exercise the fundamental constitutional right to public records,” the motion said. “Under the (appeals) court’s opinion, the government is allowed to wait out an anonymous requestor and force them to file a lawsuit in their own name — a clear interference with a fundamental constitutional right. It cannot be that fundamental constitutional rights evaporate on the courthouse steps.”
The records request was rooted in an Aug. 25, 2022, interview in which DeSantis told conservative commentator Hugh Hewitt that a group of “six or seven pretty big legal conservative heavyweights” had helped him screen candidates for appointment to the Florida Supreme Court.