TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida lawmakers are considering a new bill aimed at banning certain flags in government buildings, public schools, and universities.
The bill reads that it would broadly ban flags that display a political viewpoint, including that of race, sexual orientation, and gender.
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“Flying a pride flag, a BLM flag, or flag of a political party has no place in our government buildings,” said bill sponsor Rep. David Borrero.
The bill is already causing controversy and raising concerns about free speech.
“I think that it’s discriminatory and censoring content, specific content the state does not approve of,” said Representative Anna Eskamani.
Legislative staff said it’s unclear who all the law would apply to and which flags could be banned.
In the Senate hearing Monday, lawmakers discussed the ambiguity of the law.
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They pointed to differences in interpretation of the law between the House and Senate sponsors. House sponsors said last week, the flags could not be displayed on a lapel on a teacher or government workers clothes. Senate sponsors said the bill doesn’t specify about lapels and clothes displaying the flag.
“Again, critics might say that’s done on purpose that the people are sponsoring these bills want to chill speech, and they want to chill symbolic speech. And the best way to do that is to make avail that this is a little ambiguous, " said UCF political science professor Aubrey Jewett.
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Jewett says when it comes to matters of the first amendment, the courts have traditionally struck down laws that engage in viewpoint discrimination. The House bill’s sponsors told the committee last week, flags like the Israeli flag would be allowed by the Black Lives Matter flag or pride flag would be banned.
“It does really raise some red flags. And that’s because if the government passes a law that seems to be favoring certain kinds of speech over other kinds of speech, or saying you’re not allowed to do some speech, but you are allowed to do others, that really opens it up to strict scrutiny by the courts,” Jewett said.
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