Dara Kam

The longest-serving current member of the Florida Supreme Court, Justice Charles Canady, is leaving the bench to join the University of Florida as director of the Hamilton School for Classical and Civic Education.

Disability-rights advocates are challenging a new state law allowing pregnant women to use parking spaces reserved for people with disabilities, alleging the measure violates federal protections. The “expectant mother parking permit” allows pregnant women to obtain disabled parking placards at any point in their pregnancies. The permit, which women can get with notes from their doctors confirming they are pregnant, costs $15 and lasts for a year.

With Democrats calling the changes an “assault on the very spirit of Florida’s democracy,” the Republican-controlled Legislature on Friday finalized a plan that will impose additional hurdles on the ballot-initiative process and heighten penalties for wrongdoing.Gov. Ron DeSantis pushed lawmakers to crack down on the process after highly contentious and expensive battles over proposals last year that sought to place abortion rights in the state Constitution and allow recreational marijuana for adults.