Opinion
No. SC96974
Opinion filed July 6, 2000
Application for Review of the Decision of the District Court of Appeal — Direct Conflict Fourth District — Case No. 4D98-2894 (Palm Beach County)
Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, Celia A. Terenzio, Bureau Chief, Palm Beach Office, and Don M. Rogers, Assistant Attorney General, West Palm Beach, Florida, for Petitioner.
Mark Wilensky of Dubiner Wilensky, P.A., West Palm Beach, Florida, for Respondent.
We have for review the opinion in State v. Smith, 753 So.2d 575 (Fla. 4th DCA 1999), which the district court certified to be in conflict with the opinion of the Third District in McKnight v. State, 727 So.2d 314 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999), in which the Third District had, in turn, certified conflict with State v. Cotton, 728 So.2d 251 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998). We have jurisdiction. See art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.
We recently quashed the Second District's decision in Cotton, and approved the First District's decision in Woods v. State, 740 So.2d 20 (Fla. 1st DCA 1999), holding that the Act, as properly interpreted by the First District, does not violate separation of powers, and rejecting other constitutional challenges to the Act.See State v. Cotton, Nos. SC94996 SC95281 (Fla. June 15, 2000). Accordingly, for the reasons expressed in Cotton, we quash the Fourth District's decision in this case with directions to remand the cause to the trial court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
WELLS, C.J., and SHAW, HARDING, ANSTEAD, PARIENTE and LEWIS, JJ., concur.
QUINCE, J., dissents with an opinion.
I dissent for the reasons stated in my dissent in State v. Cotton, Nos. SC94996 SC95281 (Fla. June 15, 2000).