When Ink Stained Wretches ...

think they are lawyers, rather than, well ... ink stained wretches, we get bizzare editorials like this:

Challenge bizarre order

There, the Orlando Sentinel editorial board argues:

When Florida voters narrowly approved a constitutional amendment last fall that foolishly set the stage for an expansion of gambling at Broward County pari-mutuel facilities, the fine print was perfectly clear: State lawmakers were to settle the details, such as what type machines to allow, hours of operation and so forth.

The amendment voters approved said nothing about local government officials usurping the Legislature's mandate. Nor did it give a state judge any such authority. In fact, state Attorney General Charlie Crist unequivocally said in a March 31 advisory opinion that the amendment "requires implementing legislation."

Jeez, if Chain Gang Charlie says implementing legislation is required, it must be so. Charlie having failed the bar so many times and all.

Fact is, there's a rich history of Florida politicos failing to do their jobs and the Florida Courts being required to step in. For example, in a case I haven't yet seen mentioned in the media, more than thirty years ago the Florida Supreme Court said the following about the Legislature's failure to pass legislation implementing Florida's constitutional right of public employees to unionize:

When the people have spoken through their organic law concerning their basic rights, it is primarily the duty of the legislative body to provide the ways and means of enforcing such rights; however, in the absence of appropriate legislative action, it is the responsibility of the courts to do so. ...

Where people in a constitution or charter vote themselves a governmental benefit or privilege, they the people in whom the power of government is finally reposed, have the right to have their constitutional rights enforced. ...

The doctrine of judicial authority and responsibility was early established in the historic case of Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 5 U.S. 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803); and in the many years since then-particularly in the last quarter of a century-the courts have not hesitated to accomplish by judicial fiat what other divisions of government have failed or refused to do in protecting, implementing, or enforcing constitutional rights.

Dade County Classroom Teachers Association v. The Legislature of the State of Florida, 269 So.2d 684 (Fla. 1972). What is "bizzare" is the Sentinel's editorial, not anything the court in Broward did.