Supreme Court of Florida
Jeffrey E. Lewis, Appellants v. Leon County, Appellees
September 22, 201136 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 525
Summary
The Court affirmed the First District’s decision holding unconstitutional a statute that required counties to fund specified overhead costs for Regional Counsel offices. Applying de novo review and the plain language of article V, section 14, the Court concluded that the Constitution assigns those costs to the state because court-appointed counsel are not among the offices for which subsection (c) expressly requires county funding. The Court did not reach the separate challenge under article VII, section 18(a).