PUB 700653: Too Much Sunshine for the Public Good by Todd Misamore

ARTICLE I: DECLARATION OF RIGHTS, Section 24. Access to public records and meetings.

1. Every person has the right to inspect or copy any public record made or received in connection with the official business of any public body, officer, or employee of the state, or persons acting on their behalf, except with respect to records exempted pursuant to this section or specifically made confidential by this Constitution. This section specifically includes the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government and each agency or department created thereunder; counties, municipalities, and districts; and each constitutional officer, board, and commission, or entity created pursuant to law or this Constitution.
2. All meetings of any collegial public body of the executive branch of state government or of any collegial public body of a county, municipality, school district, or special district, at which official acts are to be taken or at which public business of such body is to be transacted or discussed, shall be open and noticed to the public and meetings of the legislature shall be open and noticed as provided in Article III, Section 4(e), except with respect to meetings exempted pursuant to this section or specifically closed by this Constitution.
3. This section shall be self-executing. The legislature, however, may provide by general law passed by a two-thirds vote of each house for the exemption of records from the requirements of subsection (a) and the exemption of meetings from the requirements of subsection (b), provided that such law shall state with specificity the public necessity justifying the exemption and shall be no broader than necessary to accomplish the stated purpose of the law. The legislature shall enact laws governing the enforcement of this section, including the maintenance, control, destruction, disposal, and disposition of records made public by this section, except that each house of the legislature may adopt rules governing the enforcement of this section in relation to records of the legislative branch. Laws enacted pursuant to this subsection shall contain only exemptions from the requirements of subsections (a) or (b) and provisions governing the enforcement of this section, and shall relate to one subject.
4. All laws that are in effect on July 1, 1993 that limit public access to records or meetings shall remain in force, and such laws apply to records of the legislative and judicial branches, until they are repealed. Rules of court that are in effect on the date of adoption of this section that limit access to records shall remain in effect until they are repealed.
5. Law abiding citizens not serving in elected office, or not having served in elected office, or a publicly appointed office, or a publicly appointed position, when a public record was created, may have their personal identifying information contained in that record, redacted, removed or sealed after seven years, as well as any personal information contained in that public record that the person feels hinders their privacy, including any criminal records if a person was found innocent, or the charges were dropped in the case, or misdemeanors not of the first degree, BUT NOT felony criminal records or first degree misdemeanor records, or property records, or other records permanently necessary to the proper operation of government, or unless it is information of such great importance that to remove or seal the record would create a burden on society or remove the record of a historical event of such magnitude that to remove the record would create a burden in the recording of Florida, United States, or world history. Additionally, this shall apply to public records made by paper, electronically, telephonically, or by any other means of recording. If the person is deceased, their executor or, if the person had no executor, the persons descendants will be allowed to remove or seal the decedents records, which exceed seven years in age, in accordance with this section, except if the cause of death of the decedent was ruled undetermined, or was connected with a crime, but under no circumstances will post mortem records be sealed, removed or altered, except by a Judges order. This section shall be retroactive immediately after the date of its approval, and a person or if that person is deceased, their executor, or descendant if there is no executor, may request that the public record(s) or personal information in those public records, which exceed seven years in age, be removed or sealed, in accordance with the requirements of this section. This section shall not supersede any persons rights which are established in the future or which currently exist that are more extensive in regards to a persons right to protect their personal information. A person who has never served in public office, by election or appointment, may request the removal or sealing of information in accordance with this section by providing proof of identity and making a personal request, by assignment of a lawyer, or by Judges order. A person serving in public office or who has served in public office, whether that be by election or appointment, may have records redacted, removed, or sealed, in accordance with this section, if they are personal records not connected to their public work in any way, and the record must be authorized for removal by order of a Judge seven years after the creation of that record, but not while serving in a public office or for seven years thereafter. The right of law abiding citizens to pursue the redacting, removal or partial sealing of personal information contained in a public record, shall be not be infringed.