Court upholds law banning state funding of Cuba travel
An appellate court kept alive a Florida law that bans the provision of
state funds for trips to Cuba.
BY JUAN CARLOS CHAVEZ
jcchavez@elnuevoherald.com
A federal appellate court in Atlanta upheld a controversial Florida law
that prohibits funding for academic and research travel to nations that
are considered ``sponsors of terrorism,'' among them Cuba.
In announcing their decision, three judges of the 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals said that the state ordinance does not conflict with federal
control over foreign policy.
The rules that initially limited the trips were imposed in 2006 at the
urging of Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, who is now a congressional candidate.
On Thursday, Rivera expressed satisfaction with the decision and called
it a ``victory'' for Florida taxpayers who do not want their money to go
to the coffers of the government of Raúl Castro.
``I am pleased. The court has reaffirmed the authority of the state
Legislature,'' Rivera told El Nuevo Herald. ``Our obligation is to
ensure that public resources and taxpayers' dollars are not utilized to
subsidize travel to terrorist countries such as the Castro regime.''
The legislation caused controversy and raised endless criticism, partly
because it did not differentiate in discussing the origin of the funds;
both public and private contributions were measured with the same yardstick.
In 2008, in a lawsuit filed by professors at several state universities,
U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz in Miami ruled that the law was
unconstitutional.
The state of Florida appealed her ruling. The decision from the 11th
Circuit came this week.
In the academic world, the news was interpreted as a serious setback for
future initiatives and projects of higher learning.
``It's a disaster. On a personal level, I am extremely depressed,'' said
Carmen Diana Deere, a professor and former director of the Center for
Latin American Studies at the University of Florida.
Deere said that the law raised unnecessary obstacles to academic
initiatives from the day it passed four years ago and that it affected a
broad range of long-range plans, among them a Cuban studies program on
historical archives and documents of the 19th and 20th centuries held by
by the University of Florida, as well as academic exchanges that had
been agreed to with the University of Havana.
``This puts us at a disadvantage at all levels of research and denies us
the capacity to attract the best faculty and graduate students,'' said
Deere.
The court's decision comes in the midst of initiatives by the Obama
administration to encourage a more flexible process in its policy
towards Cuba and achieve the democratization of the island."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/03/1805771/court-upholds-law-banning-state.html
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