Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board. Web-posted: 7:07 p.m. June 20, 2000
All South Floridians should be pleased and relieved at the news that a harmful local ordinance flunked a major court challenge and now appears doomed.
In May, a federal judge ruled a 1996 Miami-Dade County ordinance banning business dealings with Cuba was "offensive" and temporarily blocked county commissioners from enforcing it.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court said a law similar to this was an unconstitutional infringement on Congress' and the president's exclusive authority to set foreign trade policy.
The high court struck down a Massachusetts law banning state agencies from buying goods or services from the nation of Myanmar, formerly Burma, because its military leaders had been implicated in drug dealing.
The justices said that law "undermines the president's capacity … for effective diplomacy."
Those twin court decisions ought to send an unmistakable message to Miami-Dade County commissioners to rescind their bad ordinance immediately before it causes more harm.
The early signs are good. Assistant County Attorney Robert Cuevas said the high court ruling renders the ordinance unenforceable. U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said last month his final ruling on the Miami-Dade ordinance would be heavily influenced by the Massachusetts case.
The ordinance wrongly requires anyone applying for a county government contract or grant to sign an affidavit. In it, they must swear under oath that they have not done business with the Cuban govenrment, Cuban products or a Cuban resident, or even done business with another agency that
engages in such conduct.
The ordinance has already cost the county millions of dollars of lost economic benefits.
It has driven away highly respected artists, musicians and cultural or athletic events, including the Midem international music festival, the Latin Grammy music awards show, the 1999 Junior Pan Am Games and the 2007 Pan Am Games.
It has fueled justified criticism of a Cuban-American majority on the County Commission for irresponsibly writing a county foreign policy in contradiction to the Constitution.
It has offended people who support the First Amendment, for making a heavy-handed attempt to censor artists.
It significantly exceeds the scope of the U.S. embargo on Cuba, which includes a reasonable exception for cultural exhanges and humanitarian assistance.
And it has stained the county's image around the country and the world.
The ordinance has now been vigorously rebuked. It's time to take it off the books.
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