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Committee plots repeal of some citizen initiatives
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published April 20, 2006
TALLAHASSEE - A Senate committee wants to ask voters to change their minds about some citizen initiatives they put in the Florida Constitution, including amendments dealing with pregnant pigs and medical malpractice.
What started out as a proposed amendment (SJR 1918) to correct grammar and remove obsolete language from the Constitution evolved into a broader measure as the Judiciary Committee voted to also repeal several of the citizen initiatives.
League of Women Voters spokeswoman Jeanne Zokovitch objected to the proposed amendment, because voters would have to approve or reject all of the repeals and could not pick and choose. "That's a very difficult situation to put the voters in," she said.
The repealed amendments would not be discarded entirely. They would be converted into state laws, and the Legislature would be prohibited from repealing or altering them except by a three-fourths vote of each chamber.
The proposal would repeal medical malpractice amendments that cap lawyers' fees, give patients a "right to know" about adverse medical incident records concerning their doctors, and revoke the medical licenses of doctors who have committed three or more acts of malpractice.
The pig amendment bans the use of confining crates for pregnant sows. It often is cited as an example by lawmakers wanting to restrict citizen initiatives.
[Last modified April 20, 2006, 01:48:15]
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