Amendment 1

Discrimination is sanctioned in the Florida Constitution. The so-called  “alien land law”  of 1926 gives legislators the power to ban Asian immigrants from owning land. The power never has been exercised, but voters have an opportunity in November to purge the provision from state law altogether.

“What it does is eliminate the unfortunate vestiges of racial discrimination,”  Sen. Steve Geller, D-Cooper City, said in published reports last month. Geller finally convinced his colleagues to put Amendment 1 on the Nov. 4 ballot after years of lobbying. More than a dozen states had similar laws, but when New Mexico repealed its version of the alien land law in 2006, Florida was the lone holdout.

For more on this story, see the Oct. 2 issue of the Navarre Press or subscribe online