When U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom denied the City of Miami’s motion to dismiss in Cooper-Levy v. City of Miami Dec. 6, Southern Legal Counsel and co-counsel crossed the first major hurdle in their federal lawsuit against the city over its practice of seizing and destroying homeless people's property.

DAYTONA BEACH, FL – Southern Legal Counsel, along with pro bono attorneys Sabarish Neelakanta of SPN Law and Paul George of Holland & Knight, filed a federal lawsuit challenging a Daytona Beach ordinance that prohibits asking for donations in certain public spaces.

Today, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), and Southern Legal Counsel (SLC) filed a lawsuit against the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office on behalf of the nonprofit civil rights organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Florida (CAIR-FL). The lawsuit argues that the Pasco County Sheriff Office’s refusal to provide demographic information about its predictive policing program targeting students is a violation of the Florida Public Records Act.

Florida House Bill 1557, commonly referred to as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, which bans discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in grades K-3 and restricts such discussions for students through grade 12 based on undefined standards of appropriateness.

On June 17, 2022, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rule for a new rule that would deny Medicaid coverage for all medically necessary gender-affirming care for both youth and adults. Southern Legal Counsel, Florida Health Justice Project, Lambda Legal, and National Health Law Program are engaging in and carefully monitoring the rule-making process, and you can read their statements and obtain more information at ProtectFLtranshealth.org.

Southern Legal Counsel and West Palm Beach pro bono attorney Sabarish P. Neelakanta of SPN Law today filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Lake Worth Beach for enforcing local ordinances that unlawfully prohibit public charitable solicitation, which is protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Matching grants are a great way to support Southern Legal Counsel (SLC). These grants, also known as volunteer grants or “Dollars for Doers” grants, generally involve a company donating to a nonprofit where it’s employees volunteer.

At its inaugural Pro Bono Recognition event Oct. 28, Southern Legal Counsel will present the Access Justice Impact Award to Akerman LLP. This award is given to a firm that embodies SLC's mission through its service to pro bono clients. Over the last two years, approximately 30 attorneys from Akerman have volunteered with SLC. Examples of their work include:

Southern Legal Counsel, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, the ACLU of Florida Palm Beach County Chapter, and Florida Justice Institute filed a federal lawsuit challenging a West Palm Beach ordinance that prohibits asking for donations in certain public spaces. The lawsuit, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, West Palm Beach Division, also seeks a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ordinance.

Southern Legal Counsel’s work on behalf of a transgender Marion County high school student paid off this spring when she was able to walk in her graduation ceremony after bullying and a lack of support from school staff pushed her out of school.

Removing barriers to transgender individuals’ ability to access the legal-name and gender-marker change processes has been a consistent mission of SLC’s Transgender Rights Initiative. We have ensured that Florida birth certificates can be amended without proof of sex reassignment surgery, and we also developed a first of its kind website, FloridaNameChange.org, to make the processes easier to navigate without an attorney. Recently, SLC worked with the Florida Division of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV) to amend its policy for amending the gender marker on drivers licenses to make the process more accessible to the transgender community.

An important component of SLC’s Transgender Rights Initiative is building the capacity of others in Florida to represent, protect, affirm, and support transgender individuals statewide.

During Pride Month and on into July we are holding two trainings for which registration is now open.

Pride Month 2021: Best Practices for Representing LGBTQ+ Youth will be held June 29 through the Florida Legal Services Statewide Training Initiative and is sponsored by the Public Interest Law Section of The Florida Bar. Register here.

Free Statewide Transgender Legal Name and Gender Marker Change Clinic will be presented by SLC and Akerman on July 10th. Register here.

As part of a strategic, targeted attack on the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals in the United States, over 250 anti-LGBTQ+ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the country this year, making 2021 the worst year for anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in recent history. The Florida Legislature was no exception.

With a Pro Bono Transformation grant from The Florida Bar Foundation, Southern Legal Counsel established a formal pro bono program in 2019, hiring attorney Samantha Howell as its first pro bono director.

During the first two years of the pro bono program, SLC worked with more than 300 pro bono volunteers, including lawyers, law students, grad students, and undergraduate students. Collectively, this group provided about 9,000 hours of service. Our vision is to continue to increase the number of volunteers and the scope of their work to integrate pro bono across all areas of legal advocacy.

OCALA, FL – Southern Legal Counsel and the ACLU of Florida filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the city of Ocala on behalf of Roger Luebke, Kimberly Burnham, William Anthony Taylor, Victor Hoyt Cox, Dustin Damico, and Patrick McArdle, who have been arrested for asking people for help.

“Ocala’s ordinances prohibiting people from asking for help are unconstitutional under the First and Fourteenth amendments,” said lead counsel Chelsea Dunn of Southern Legal Counsel. “Every individual in this case has been subject to arrest based on the content of their speech. They have been jailed and assessed fines for acts as harmless as asking a stranger for a cigarette.”

After achieving a victory in Marion County Court for Anthony Cummings, a homeless man who had been illegally assessed $824 in court costs and had his driver’s license suspended in three cases of “open lodging” under an Ocala ordinance, Southern Legal Counsel and the ACLU of Florida also brought about systemic change affecting more than 10,000 people in 29 counties.