Armstrong v. Harris
Armstrong v. Harris is a 2000 decision of the Florida Supreme Court overturning the results of a 1998 ballot measure election regarding the Preservation of the Death Penalty Act, which Florida voters approved by 72.8% in November 1998.[1]
The vote on the Florida Supreme Court was 4-3. The majority ruled that the ballot title and summary for the amendment were defective and that the amendment was therefore invalid.
The court ruled that a portion of the ballot title ("United States Supreme Court interpretation of cruel and unusual punishment") and a sentence in the summary (“Requires construction of the prohibition against cruel and/or unusual punishment to conform to United States Supreme Court interpretation of the Eighth Amendment") "impl[ied] that the amendment will promote the rights of Florida citizens through the rulings of the United States Supreme Court”, but said that the amendment "effectively strikes the state Clause from the constitutional scheme." You can read the full opinion here.
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ D'Alemberte, T. (2017). The Florida State Constitution. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. (page 62)
