Opinion ID: 1684920
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Dissenting View

Text: While I recognize the good faith of the dissenting view, I conclude that view may be more properly characterized as rejecting controlling precedent and taking issue with this Court's holding in In re T.W. than disputing the trial court's proper application of that holding here. As noted above, In re T.W. is binding precedent and has been properly interpreted and applied by the trial court and by Justice Shaw in the majority opinion. Surely no one can assert that Justice Shaw, who authored the Court's opinion in In re T.W., does not understand the meaning of that opinion, or has misapplied it here. If anyone knows what In re T.W. stands for, it is Justice Shaw. In fact, Justice Shaw is the only member of the present Court who participated in the decision in In re T.W. Further, while at one level the dissent simply debates Justice Shaw's interpretation of his own prior opinion in In re T.W., the dissent also takes a far more drastic view. That view would have this Court not only recede from In re T.W. and our numerous decisions that have relied on its analysis and holding, but also would have us recede from the long established constitutional principles that were applied in In re T.W. and have been applied in the majority opinion today. Such action would wreak havoc with our law. This dissent, for example, would abandon the well established constitutional law principle consistently adhered to by this Court that the ordinary deference due legislation does not apply when a fundamental constitutional right, such as Florida's right to privacy, is implicated. In fact, the dissenter has himself endorsed that principle, and was the author of our most recent opinion applying that principle in Chiles v. State Employees Attorneys Guild, 734 So.2d 1030 (Fla.1999). The established constitutional principles set out in the Chiles opinion have been utilized by the majority opinion again today as a roadmap for evaluation of the constitutional issues we have resolved. As explained in Chiles, under our long-established principles of constitutional adjudication, not only does the rule of deference not apply in fundamental rights cases, but the burden rests in such cases with the government to demonstrate a compelling state interest advanced by the least intrusive means sufficient to overcome the constitutional right. In addition, where the government's burden to demonstrate the existence of a compelling state interest or the use of least intrusive means turns on determinations of fact, the findings of a trial court are presumptively correct and must stand unless clearly erroneous. Chiles, 734 So.2d at 1034. Of course, no one has even asserted that the trial court's findings here are clearly erroneous, or has otherwise demonstrated that the trial court erred in its application of this Court's law concerning governmental intrusions on fundamental rights.