From DeSantis v. Dream Defenders, decided today by the Florida Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice John Couriel, joined by all his colleagues other than Judge Jorge Labarga:
Today we answer a certified question from the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit about the meaning of Florida's law prohibiting riot, section 870.01(2), Florida Statutes (2021). At bottom, the question is whether that law applies to a person who is present at a violent protest, but neither engages in, nor intends to assist others in engaging in, violent and disorderly conduct. And the answer is: no, it does not….
In 2021, the Legislature passed the "Combatting Violence, Disorder, and Looting, and Law Enforcement Protection Act," or Florida House Bill 1 (HB 1). See ch. 2021-6, § 15, Laws of Fla. Among other things, HB 1 amended section 870.01(2), Florida Statutes (2020), to define the crime of "riot":
A person commits a riot if he or she willfully participates in a violent public disturbance involving an assembly of three or more persons, acting with a common intent to assist each other in violent and disorderly conduct, resulting in:
(a) Injury to another person;
(b) Damage to property; or
(c) Imminent danger of injury to another person or damage to property.
Soon after HB 1 took effect, a group of plaintiffs—the appellees here {Dream Defenders, Florida State Conference of the NAACP, Black Collective Inc., Chainless Change Inc., and Black Lives Matter Alliance Broward}—sued Governor Ron DeSantis, three Florida sheriffs, and Attorney General Ashley Moody … to enjoin them from enforcing section 870.01(2)….
