DeSantis Sets Nov. 15 Start Date For Special Session Of FL Legislature

Florida Phoenix

FLORIDA — Gov. Ron DeSantis, as promised, has called the Florida Legislature into special session to undercut President Joe Biden’s vaccine policies and strengthen parents’ rights to decide whether children will wear masks in school.

The governor set the start date for the gathering for Nov. 15, when the Legislature is due in the Capitol anyway for committee hearings in advance of the regular session set to open on Jan. 11. He set the end date at Nov. 19, at the latest.

Attorney General Ashley Moody, with DeSantis’ full backing, has already filed a federal legal challenge to Biden’s order that federal contractors’ employees take the shots. The governor also strongly objects to pending orders to require vaccines of private companies with more than 100 workers plus health care facilities drawing federal Medicare and Medicaid money. The president would allow regular coronavirus testing as an alternative.

Additionally, DeSantis wants to shore up his own authority to set policy on masking for public schoolchildren and to punish private companies that require workers to get vaccinated.

“In Florida, we believe that the decision whether or not to get a COVID shot is a choice based on individual circumstances, so we are litigating against the Biden administration and will be passing legislation in this special session to protect Florida jobs and protect parents’ rights when it comes to masking and quarantines,” DeSantis said in a written statement.

“The health, education, and well-being of our children are primarily the responsibility of parents. As long as I am governor, parents in Florida will play a strong role in determining what their kids are learning and how they’re treated in school.”

That said, local school boards, under the Florida Constitution, “shall operate, control and supervise all free public schools” within their school districts, raising questions about the executive branch, and Florida parents, usurping authority over public school matters, including mast mandates.

The situation has grown worse, as the state punishes certain school boards — docking board members’ pay — that don’t comply with the DeSantis administration’s policies. The local boards believe they have been protecting children.

The Florida Constitution authorizes either the governor or legislative leaders to convene special sessions. In an executive order invoking his own authority, DeSantis lays a litany of complaints at Biden’s feet, including his “unprecedented efforts to coerce or pressure workers into receiving injections of the COVID-19 vaccine and to interfere with the enforcement of state law governing the use of masks and quarantines in public schools.”

The document asks the Legislature to do the following:

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