Town of Lantana v. Pelczynski
Decision Date | 13 November 1974 |
Docket Number | No. 45193,45193 |
Citation | 303 So.2d 326 |
Parties | TOWN OF LANTANA, Petitioner, v. Jim PELCZYNSKI, Respondent. |
Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Charles W. Musgrove, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.
John L. Parker, Jr., West Palm Beach, for respondent.
This cause is before us on certiorari granted to review the decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, in Town of Lantana v. Pelczyski, reported at 290 So.2d 566 (Fla.App.4th 1974), which purportedly conflicts with this Court's decision in Ex Parte Hawthorne, 116 Fla. 608, 156 So. 619 (1934).
The issue before us is the constitutionality of Lantana Town Ordinance 8--20 which provides:
Respondent was charged and convicted in municipal court for violation of the ordinance. On appeal, the circuit court held and we agree that this ordinance violates Art. I, § 4 and 9, of the Constitution of Florida and the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
The district court agreed with the circuit court's judgment reported at 39 Fla.Supp.76, holding the ordinance unconstitutional; petition for writ of certiorari was accordingly denied.
We are not unmindful of the decision of this Court in 1934, Ex Parte Hawthorne, Supra, in which we upheld a statute comparable to the Lantana ordinance now in question. However, subsequent to this Court's decision in Ex Parte Hawthorne, the U.S. Supreme Court in Mills v. Alabama, 384 U.S. 214, 86 S.Ct. 1434, 16 L.Ed.2d 484 (1966), decided that an Alabama statute comparable to the Lantana ordinance and the statute challenged in Ex Parte Howthorne was invalid; the state law announced in Ex Parte Hawthorne must therefore yield to the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in its interpretation of the Constitution of the United States.
There is no question that the State has the power and the duty to insure free and fair elections. Mills v. Alabama, Supra; The Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, 418 U.S. 241, 94 S.Ct. 2831, 41 L.Ed.2d 730, decided June 25, 1974, Justice White's concurring opinion. Specifically, the Supreme Court of the United States in Mills v. Alabama stated:
(emphasis ours)
Justice White in his concurring opinion in Tornillo, supra, likewise concedes the important interest of the State in ensuring free and fair elections.
In determining that the Alabama statute in question was unconstitutional, the Supreme Court in Mills opined:
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