Lawsuit challenges state ban on travel to Cuba

Posted on Fri, Oct. 27, 2006

EDUCATION
Lawsuit challenges state ban on travel to Cuba
A judge was asked to overturn a state law that bans academic travel to
Cuba and five other countries.
BY NICOLE WHITE
nwhite@MiamiHerald.com

The ACLU asked a judge Thursday to suspend a state law that bans
universities in Florida from allowing travel to Cuba so that professors
and students can pursue travel plans for research and academic exchanges.

In the hearing before U.S. District Judge Adalberto Jordan, the American
Civil Liberties Union argued that the law banning trips to Cuba and five
other countries on the U.S. terrorist watch list is unconstitutional and
should be overturned.

But attorneys for the state said Florida has the right to oversee all
money managed by its universities.

'It's not the professors' monies; it's the universities','' said Louis
Hubener, acting solicitor general for Florida. He argued the law applies
to state universities as well as private universities in Florida that
receive state funds.

At issue: the law, approved by the Florida Legislature this year, seems
to be inconsistent with federal law, which currently allows travel to
these countries for academic research.

The ACLU maintains that the law also unfairly lumps private funding --
which the universities merely oversee -- with state funding from being
used to finance trips. The law includes grants and endowments not funded
by the state. The ACLU argued the state should not be regulating such
private funds.

In addition to Cuba, the law forbids the use of state funds to travel to
Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria -- countries on the State
Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism.

''They have stopped the flow of these funds that are sitting there ...
and are also stopping academic exchange,'' said Paul Brinkman, an
attorney with the Washington-based firm of Alston and Bird who is
arguing the case pro bono for the ACLU.

The complaint alleges that several professors and students from various
state universities, including Florida International University and the
University of Florida, have been unable to pursue travel plans to those
countries. The trips, they say, have been key for their academic research.

State Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, sponsored the legislation in previous
years, but it gained steam during this year's legislative session after
FIU professor Carlos M. Alvarez and his wife Elsa, an FIU counselor,
were arrested and accused of being unregistered agents for the Cuba's
communist government. They have pleaded not guilty.

Irrespective of the constitutionality issues, the law has many gray
areas, said Judge Jordan. Among them:

May state universities cover the travel of professors from those
terrorist countries to attend academic programs hosted in Florida?

And are Florida professors, who wish to use their own money for these
trips, allowed to use state resources -- such as a laptop -- to arrange
those plans?

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/15859518.htm