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FL CAN Legal Victories Florida CAN Claims another Jacksonville Hempfest Victory March 8th, 2001 US District Court issued a partial summary and declaratory judgment in favor of FL CAN declaring some of the festival permitting ordinances unconstitutional. Full text of the ruling can be found Here. June 13th, 2000 the US District Court Denied a preliminary injunction to the Hempfest, Judge Harvey Schlesinger said that he could not be sure whether the Hempfest actually was a festival under the current city ordinances. The fest went on as scheduled without a permit with out any interference from the city. Full text of the order can be found Here. May 25th, 2000 Cannabis Action Network President, Kevin Aplin; Vice President, Scott Bledsoe; and Medical Marijuana Patient Joe Tacl filed suit in US District Court Middle District of Florida seeking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the unconstitutional city ordinances that would seek to stop the 3rd Annual Jacksonville Hempfest from taking place." It is time that citizens are allowed to freely exercise and use their constitutional rights to free speech and assembly", said Jodi James CAN Secretary. Full text of the complaint filed in Federal Court can be found Here. The Times Union article concerning the event can be found Here. Cannabis Culture's article concerning the event can be found Here. Florida CAN Victorious in 11th US Circuit Court Florida Cannabis Action Network won a victory with a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta on October 25, 2000. After five years of extensive and oftentimes confusing litigation over the 1995 Gainesville Hempfest, the Street Closing and Sound Ordinances were found to be facially unconstitutional."We made law in 3 states", said CAN President Kevin Aplin on Thursday. "From now on cities in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, will have to go to court to deny us a festival permit, or a street closing permit, or a sound permit. No longer will they be allowed to arbitrarily sit on or deny a permit, if they don't go to court they cannot stop our events." This is a huge victory for Florida CAN and Free Speech in America. The full ruling can be found Here. FL CAN Vice President Arrested (again) November 16th, 2000 The state's Attorney agreed to drop the charges stemming from this arrest, the arrest at ALL TELL Stadium Dec. 2nd, 1999, and the arrest of Dec. 26th 1999, in Exchange for a no contest plea of Reckless Driving, for which Bledsoe was penalized $125 in Court Costs and forced to attend a Victim Impact meeting for DUI Offenders. The judge withheld adjudication on the reckless driving charge. VICTORY! Now time for the civil lawsuits. Florida Can Vice President, Scott Bledsoe was arrested on October 24th outside of a GW Bush for President Campaign rally. While attempting to use a PA system to address rally attendees about GW Bush policy towards drug users and addicts, Secret Service agents advised Mr Bledsoe that he was in a secured area and would have to leave. Although Bledsoe claims he was on a public property entirely separate from that of the rally, he was still ordered to leave. Scott Bledsoe's detailed account of what happened as well as a video of the arrest can be found Here. The Times Union article concerning this event can be found Here. FL CAN Vice President Arrested On Thursday December 2nd, 1999 CAN Vice President Scott Bledsoe was arrested while petitioning outside ALL Tell Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida. Details of this event can be found Here. Florida CAN Files Amicus Brief Before US Supreme Court Pictured to the left: Gary Edinger, FL CAN Legal Counsel; Scott Bledsoe, FL CAN Vice President; and Kevin Aplin, FL CAN President The Florida Cannabis Action Network filed an Amicus Brief before the US Supreme Court in August, 2000 in support of on behalf of City News and Novelty, an adult bookstore in WAUKESHA, WISCONSIN who is in the midst of a First Amendment Battle to distribute Erotic Adult Materials to Adults in that city. Although Cannabis Action Network has no direct affiliation with this company nor with the distribution of adult literature, it is important that the court, if City News loses, separates the ideal of pure political speech from that of commercial speech in this case. Florida CAN Threatened with Arrest and Violence Again at the Poles As a result of the Cooperation of the new supervisor of elections John Stafford, and the adequate conditions which the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office has decided to ensure petitioning rights we will be settling this case. As you may read below, CAN organizers settled a lawsuit from last November, when they were removed from the polls under threat of arrest and violence, On April 13th, 1999, CAN organizers were once again removed from the polls under much worse threats from Pastor Gene Youngblood of the First Southern Baptist Church in Jacksonville, who threatened to go get a baseball bat. The police refused to assist and protect the rights of petitioners instead threatening arrest in direct defiance of the order from Jacksonville Sheriff, Nat Glover. Three Polls in total have been removed from the rolls as a direct result of these threats. CAN filed a federal Lawsuit in US District Court, Middle District of Florida, on Wednesday May 5th, 1999 (CASE #99-434-CIV-J-20a) against the Jacksonville Sheriff and Supervisor of Elections. In the Photo,Organizer Scott Bledsoe is seen recording Officer Windham's remarks. Original Complaint filed with the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, FDLE, and the Supervisor of Elections can be found Here. Times Union Article about the Conflict can be found Here. Times Union Article about the conflicts during the run off elections in May can be found Here.