Florida travel to Cuba companies victorious

Court
rebukes state’s unconstitutional statute                       Read Spanish Version

This
information was issued in a press release by attorneys’ for
plaintiffs in the case. At Progreso Weekly we ask that appropriate
authorities investigate the actions taken by Governor Crist, House
Speaker Marco Rubio and the law’s main sponsor, State Rep. David
Rivera, and others who brought forward this law which most knew had
no chance in any legitimate court in this country. For strictly
political reasons, the aforementioned have cost Florida taxpayers
more than a million dollars in bills to carry forward this travesty.)

The
Honorable Alan Gold of the United States District Court for the
Southern District of Florida today (April 14) issued a final order
striking down the Florida Travel Act Amendments as unconstitutional
and a violation of the Supremacy Clause.

In
2008, the Florida legislature amended the Florida Travel Act in an
attempt to end travel to Cuba from Florida. The law imposed penalties
on Cuban American travel agencies and charter companies doing
business with Cuba. Governor Charlie Crist signed the legislation.
The law required travel agencies engaged in travel to Cuba to post
bonds that were 10 to 25 times higher than those required of other
travel agencies. It made any violation of any state or federal law a
third degree felony if it involved travel to Cuba, but punished
violators engaged in travel to other countries with misdemeanors. It
required far higher registration fees and imposed many other onerous
and punitive requirements on companies involved in the travel
business to Cuba.

In
striking down the law, the Court cited the United States government’s
public opposition to the Florida statute. The Court found that the
Florida Travel Act amendments interfere with federal law and
regulations, and the foreign policy of the United States. The Court
also noted the recent changes in U.S. policy in lifting travel
restrictions to Cuba for Cuban Americans and in blunt terms stated:

“The
State of Florida is not entitled to adopt a foreign policy under our
Constitution or interfere with the exclusive prerogative of the
United States to establish a carefully balanced approach to relations
with foreign countries, including Cuba.”

The
Court entered a permanent injunction against the amendment and a
declaratory judgment declaring the law unconstitutional.

Ira
J. Kurzban, lead counsel for Plaintiff charter companies and travel
agencies, hailed the judge’s decision as a “clear, unequivocal
statement that the Florida legislature has no business conducting its
own foreign policy. At a time when the state lacks resources,” he
said, “Florida legislators should be focused on the issues that are
important to Floridians instead of spending hundreds of thousands of
dollars trying to uphold clearly unconstitutional laws such as the
Travel Act amendments.”