FH89 Representative Mike Caruso at February Lunch

Our February speaker, newly elected to House district 89, has not yet participated in a Legislative session, but has experienced first hand the chaos that surrounded the 2018 election. As the recount dragged on, his was one of the 4 races that were too close to call, and Mike was down at the SOE facility daily keeping watch on Susan Bucher’s minions as they tried to sort it out in the biggest election fiasco since the butterfly ballot.

Now that Governor DeSantis has replaced Bucher with Wendy Link, we can look forward to 2020 in his words “.. where there’s not any type of circus after the votes are in.”

Join us on February 27th to hear Mike’s thoughts on the matter and what it was like to participate in the that circus as his vote advantage over Jim Bonfiglio shrank with each passing day. The FH89 race was not actually over until Bonfiglio conceded on November 18. The margin was 37 votes.

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Mike Caruso learned from a young age that in order to succeed, he needed to roll up his sleeves and work hard until the job was done. As a child, Mike sold flowers and mowed lawns to earn money. He kept his entrepreneurial spirit alive and worked his way through college at George Washington University, where he earned a degree in Business Administration, specializing in accounting.

After years of experience as a CPA in accounting firms such as KPMG and Grant Thornton International, Mike opened his own CPA firm, Caruso & Caruso, in Palm Beach County. Over the next three decades, Mike used his skills to benefit the community, serving on many community organization boards, and serving as an expert witness in many local and national court cases as a forensic account.

Mike is a proud father of 7, a champion barefoot water-skier, a tennis enthusiast, and enjoys spending time at the beach with his wife and two dogs. Mike is honored to call District 89 his home where he has lived for 32 years.

Since being elected to the Florida House, Mike has been assigned to serve on the following committees: Energy & Utilities Subcommittee; Higher Education & Career Readiness Subcommittee;Insurance & Banking Subcommittee; Joint Legislative Auditing Committee; Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee; and the Ways & Means Committee. He is looking forward to passing meaningful legislation and working on good public policy for the people of Florida.

PLF’s Mark Miller at January Lunch

This month’s speaker was Mark Miller, Senior Attorney of Pacific Legal Foundation, one of the most active and effective public interest legal organizations in the US. Founded during the Reagan years, PLF has tallied up an impressive set of victories in high profile cases, including 11 wins at the Supreme Court. A 501(c)3 organization, PLF is supported by grants and donations and does all its work pro-bono.

Mark specializes in environmental law, land use and first amendment cases, and he described for us many of his projects that have been covered by the national media.

In his recent Supreme court case, Weyerhaeuser vs. US Fish and Wildlife, Mark successfully argued that restricting land use in Louisiana as habitat for the “Mississippi Dusky Gopher Frog”, an amphibian that has not been found there in decades, was a mis-application of the Endangered Species Act. In an 8-0 decision (Cavenaugh had not yet been confirmed), SCOTUS overturned both the district court and the 5th circuit who had maintained that Fish & Wildlife had ‘agency discretion’ to so designate.

Another case Mark explained was Knick v. Township of Scott, in which a Pennsylvania property owner challenged a recent town ordinance that required public access to her property which was alleged after an intrusive search, to contain graves. With an argument that this was in violation of the 4th (unrestrained search) and 5th (unlawful taking) amendments, PLF argued at the Supreme Court recently that the case should not have to exhaust all remedies at the state level prior to argument in federal court. This case, argued this month, is pending.

Another high profile PLF Supreme Court case was Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, in which voters who wore clothing containing political sentiments were denied access to the polling places. A tea party “Don’t tread on me” slogan was at issue. The Court issued its ruling on June 14, 2018, stating in a 7–2 decision that Minnesota’s law did violate the First Amendment, ruling it unconstitutional.

Mark has also been involved in state and local cases. In 2014 he represented the owner of the Crafted Keg brew pub in Stuart, who wanted to sell beer in industry standard “growlers” (64 ounce containers) in violation of a Florida law which protects large beer makers from upstart craft brewers. This one received national attention. “Why should his success be limited by a state law that’s irrational?”, Mark argued. After suing the state, this one was resolved in the Legislature where the 64 oz. growler was legalized.

He also volunteered to represent JP Krause, a Vero Beach High School student whose election to student body President was dis-allowed by the school over a “build a wall’ joke he made during the campaign. He was re-instated after the story was picked up by Fox & Friends and Whoopi Goldberg supported the student’s position on “The View”.

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After the meeting, in preparation of a full page ad in the Lincoln Day Dinner booklet, the club leaders were photographed with our new club banner:

Defending Liberty against the Power and Reach of Government

Did you ever feel outraged when predatory regulators attack ordinary citizens, take their property, and impose catastrophic fines for behavior that we “thought” was protected by the Constitution?

If that happens to you, “Who you gonna call?”

Pacific Legal Foundation litigates nationwide to secure all Americans’ inalienable rights to live responsibly and productively in their pursuit of happiness. PLF combines strategic and principled litigation, communications, and research to achieve landmark court victories enforcing the Constitution’s guarantee of individual liberty.

Mark manages the Palm Beach Gardens office of PLF and is fresh from his 8-0 victory in front of the Supreme Court in “Weyerhauser vs U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service”, (aka the “dusky gopher frog” case) which protected the rights of a Louisiana property owner against the “critical habitat” designation of the Endangered Species Act.

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Mark Miller, a PLF Senior Attorney, manages PLF’s Florida office in Palm Beach Gardens. He defends your constitutional rights in state and federal court. CBS This Morning, Fox & Friends, The View, The Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio (NPR) have all featured his work.

An expert in appellate practice, Thomson Reuters lists Mark as a Florida SuperLawyer, Florida Trend Magazine has described him as a member of Florida’s Legal Elite, and Martindale-Hubbell awarded him its AV-Preeminent rating, its highest rating. He serves as a director for the boards of Americans United for Life, Florida Rural Legal Services, Inc., Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal Historical Society, and the Martin County Legal Aid Society. He is both a James Madison Institute senior fellow and a Federalist Society expert and approved speaker. He is a past president of the Martin County Bar Association. In 2018, Florida Governor Rick Scott appointed him to serve a four-year term as a member of Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal Judicial Nominating Commission.

Mark learned to fight for justice and love our country from his two grandfathers: one fought under General George S. Patton in World War II, and the other graduated from NYU Law in the early 1920s. Both men taught Mark to believe in the greatness of the United States but also to keep its government honest; that is what he has done throughout his career and does now as a member of the PLF team.

He attended college and law school at the University of Florida, earning both diplomas with Honors. He elbow clerked for U.S. District Judge Henry Lee Adams, Jr., of the Middle District of Florida and Emerson R. Thompson, Jr., of Florida’s Fifth District Court of Appeal. Mark has represented clients before local zoning boards and through every court level up to and including the Supreme Court of the United States. He served as co-counsel and second chair before the High Court in United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., one of our recent wins before the Court, and was lead counsel for the family landowners in Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, PLF’s most recent Supreme Court win.