From Palmetto Senior High School Panther to possibly becoming the first Black woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. That could be the journey for Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Last week President Biden nominated Judge Jackson to become the 116th Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
The historic nomination fulfills his campaign promise from two years ago.
On his campaign trail, Biden said that if he were elected president and had the opportunity to appoint someone to the court, then he would be committed to appointing the first Black woman to the court.
“It’s required that they have representation now. It’s long overdue,” he said.
Out of the 115 justices that have ever served in the court’s 233-year history, only seven have not been white men.
For Melba Pearson, Policy Director at FIU’s Center for the Administration of Justice, it’s shameful that it has taken so long for this nomination to come.
“It is shameful that in over 200 plus years we have not seen an African-American female on the highest court of the land when so many issues that impact women of color all around this country are heard by that same court.”
Judge Jackson will bring not only years of legal experience, but also different perspectives as a Black woman and a public defense lawyer, which Pearson believes will be invaluable to the Supreme Court.
“I believe that having an experience as a public servant definitely exposes you to the way that people live in this country,” she said. “Sometimes if you go into a more corporate environment, you don’t get to interact with everyday people.”
If confirmed, Judge Jackson would succeed Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, who will retire this summer.
Judge Jackson’s Senate confirmation hearings are scheduled to begin March 21 and WLRN will have live coverage.
Spring Break in Miami Beach and a look towards its future
Florida is a hotspot for tourism, and you don’t have to look further than Miami Beach to see that. With spring break around the corner, the city has been gearing up for the waves of tourists, but some of its endeavors have been stopped yet again.
The City of Miami Beach placed a ban on alcohol sales after 2 a.m., but The Clevelander Bar, an Ocean Drive hotel and bar, sued and overturned the ban. The city tried to pass a similar ban last year.
This ban comes in the wake of the unprecedented spring break Miami Beach witnessed last year. The city saw altercations between police and crowds, a car burned in the streets, and an 8 p.m. curfew was imposed.
The city would like to prevent that chaos from happening again, and has already taken other steps.
“For the first time, the city will actually be hosting a city-funded festival,” said Martin Vassolo, the Miami Beach reporter for the Miami Herald. “It's a month-long concert series, activity, event series that is $3 million.”
He said the mayor calls this a counter-programming effort, targeting an older demographic rather than college-aged vacationers. The series will feature artists like Alanis Morrissette and activities on Lummus Park
This is part of their approach to appeal to more families and residents who tend to stay away from the large spring break crowds fueled by alcohol. The city will see the usual spring break laws cracking down on revelers alongside this attempt to shift the city’s image.
These attempts at stymying the raucous spring break crowd also come from Mayor Dan Gelber’s hope to steer Miami Beach away from its spring break image.
“The mayor is making this pitch that we can’t cater to this all-night party business model and we want to shed this profile of ours,” Vassolo said.
Changing condo and HOA laws in Miami-Dade
By next February, condo owners and buyers in Miami-Dade County will be able to search the finances of home association boards online. A new law passed Tuesday by the Miami-Dade County Commission requires new disclosures of home association finances and structural reports.
The changes come in the wake of the Champlain Towers South condominium collapse last summer.
The law states that condominium and homeowner associations must now make their financial statements and structural safety reports public. Associations have until February 2023 to upload their documents to a county database that will be available to the public.
The blueprint for this comes from Hallandale Beach. Commissioner Anabelle Lima-Taub sponsored the Condominium and HOA Transparency Act in 2020, which also made associations in Hallandale subject to the same rules and regulations as those in Miami-Dade County.
The Condominium and HOA Transparency Act is the first of its kind in the state. Commissioner Taub said they currently have 56% of condo associations complying. The deadline to follow the law is February 1. Taub said the point of the act is to make sure complaints could be heard.
“The way that this came about is for us to attenuate often legitimate complaints by condo owners, many on a fixed income,” she said. “Many of them were not able to get access to documents.”
For the next year, homeowner and condominium associations in Miami-Dade will need to gather their information and documents. The county is working on an online portal to make the information public. Once that portal is set up, messages will go out telling the associations they can upload their information.
In Miami-Dade County, Commissioner René García says the penalties for not complying will range from $200 to $500 depending on the severity of the case.
“At the end of the day, our whole goal is to try and bring more transparency and let this be the first step, as we have multiple steps that we are looking to do,” he said.
State law already requires a seller to disclose financial information and building reports about the association, but only after a contract is signed and a buyer asks for it.
Former state representative Julio Robaina said this is where the problem lies. The information is only offered when asked for, and a lot of people don’t even know that they have to ask for it, he said.
Robaina also said that even though there are laws about what records need to be turned over to the public, he said the records don't actually get turned over. He hopes this sparks a change.
For now, the reports for now don’t have to be incredibly detailed. Their main focus for now is on the financial information, especially the budgets that are adopted every year within the associations, Commissioner García said.
“We are asking for all the inspections and building violations that will be issued on those associations,” he said. “That also has to be uploaded so individuals can keep track of exactly what's going on as it relates to the inspections and the finances of the communities."
