Kramer Levin Files Amicus Brief for Everytown for Gun Safety and The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in Florida Supreme Court

On Oct. 29, 2018, Kramer Levin filed an amicus curiae brief in the Florida Supreme Court on behalf of our clients Everytown for Gun Safety and The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, two of the leading organizations in the United States devoted to advocating for responsible gun laws and reducing gun violence. Our brief argues that a recent amendment to Florida's Stand Your Ground law violates the separation of powers provisions of Florida's Constitution and is thus unlawful. Those provisions provide that only Florida's Supreme Court may promulgate procedural rules, and such rules may only be repealed by a two-thirds majority of the State Legislature.

Florida’s Stand Your Ground statute provides immunity from prosecution to defendants who use force, including deadly force, under certain circumstances, and eliminates the common-law duty to retreat, if reasonably possible, before doing so. The amendment at issue, which was enacted by the State Legislature by a simple majority in order to repeal and replace a procedural rule created by the Florida Supreme Court, shifts the burden to the prosecution to prove, by clear and convincing evidence at the preliminary stages of a case, that a defendant is not entitled to immunity under the statute after the defendant has made a prima facie case of entitlement. Studies have linked Stand Your Ground laws in Florida and elsewhere to an increase in the number of homicides, without finding evidence of a deterrent effect on robbery, burglary, and assault. The amendment at issue in this case makes it even more difficult to prosecute violent crime, and is likely to lead to increased violence, including gun violence. 

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office, which prosecuted this case at the trial level, had argued that the amendment is unconstitutional. However, when the Florida State Attorney General's Office argued the case on appeal, and then briefed it in Florida's Supreme Court, it abdicated this position. This left only amici curiae, including Kramer Levin's clients, to urge the Florida Supreme Court to find that the amendment is unconstitutional. 

The case is Love v. State, No. SC18-747.

Read the brief here.