The United States Supreme Court yesterday declared that it would not consider a challenge to a 2006 Florida law that prohibits a state university or community college from using state funds to sponsor travel to countries designated by the US State Department as sponsors of terrorism. Countries on that list include Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and Cuba, which was the impetus for the law.
Because the 11th Circuit Court upheld the law, their ruling stands, and therefore so does the law.
This is a huge victory for Congressman David Rivera (R-Florida) who as a Florida State Representative in 2006 introduced the legislation shortly after a Florida International University professor and his wife were discovered to be spies for the Cuban government. The husband and wife duo was subsequently sentenced to five and three years in prison, respectively–a soft sentence, in my opinion. Personally, I’d have executed them. #thatsrightisaidit
But I digress…
After Rivera’s bill was enacted, a group of leftist puke FIU professors upset with no longer being able to travel to Cuba on our dime for “cultural exchanges” or whatever other excuses they used, went ahead and challenged the law in court. They argued the law allowed Florida to illegally infringe on the federal government’s power over foreign policy. They also claimed:
“Travel to countries identified as state sponsors of terrorism is not restricted as a consequence of their federal designation, and indeed is expressly permitted under other legal or regulatory provisions—either as a general matter (with respect to Iran, Sudan, and Syria) or under particular circumstances (with respect to Cuba).”
One of the forces behind challenging the law was FIU professor Uva de Aragón who for years ran the university’s Cuba travel programs. She has also been a leading proponent of easing travel restrictions on Cuba–without preconditions, of course.
We at Reaganista.com are keeping an eye on her and any other so-called “exiled” Cuban backstabber type that somehow derives personal gain from the Stalinist Castro tyranny.
We conservatives resoundingly reject any efforts to normalize relations or ease any restrictions on Cuba until the regime meets certain conditions such as–oh, i don’t know–releasing political prisoners, allowing free and fair elections, allowing a free press, and legalizing dissident groups and political parties. We at Reaganista.com will fight and expose anyone who undermines the cause of liberty in Cuba by throwing in with the Leftists and Stalnists in their support of conferring legitimacy to the Castro regime in any way.
But anyway, we once again congratulate Congressman David Rivera for defending the state’s taxpayers and the cause of freedom for Cuba by stopping taxpayer money from funding travel to Cuba by leftist professors and their apprentices. Today he released a statement praising the Supreme Court’s decision to essentially uphold the 11th Circuit’s ruling:
“Today’s Supreme Court decision is a victory for Florida taxpayers. The Travel to Terrorist States Act was passed unanimously by the Florida legislature and upheld by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. By denying another appeal on this case, the Supreme Court sends a clear message that the Florida legislature, the people’s elected representatives, has the right to decide how the state’s taxpayer dollars are spent and how they should not be spent. Floridians do not want their money or publicly-funded resources to be utilized for travel to terrorist nations, or to enrich terrorist regimes.”
Personally, I can’t imagine there is anything useful to be learned from a bunch of Stalinist professors in communist Cuba, but if anyone feels there is, they can find out by paying for it themselves.
