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February 08, 2010

Plotting a course for ethics reform in FL

By CREW Staff

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.