Obviously the curfew in the City of Jacksonville has become controversial and is going to be debated. I'm going to send a series of tweets that gets into the legal justification of the curfew. Hopefully this will help people understand the process better.

As Mayor, @lennycurry has the authority to Section 674.302 of the statutes of the City of Jacksonville. The full chapter is titled "Disaster Preparedness and Civil Emergency", this is from part 3 of that Chapter on Civil Emergency. Let's look at that part.

674.301: "Preservation of Peace- In the event of overt acts of violence or the imminent threat of violence within the City, and when the Governor has not declared a state of emergency to exist, the Mayor is authorized, by proclamation, to declare that a state of civil... (cont.)

emergency exists in the City and to exercise one or more, or all, of the emergency powers granted by this Part."

Translation: the Mayor can declare there is a civil emergency if there are acts of violence or the violence is imminent. There is more clarity in the next section. I am a bit concerned with the language about the Gov not declaring a state of emergency. There is a SOE for COVID-19

The next section gets more into the details of what is required to make the declaration.

674.302. "Requirements for declaration - Whenever the Mayor determines that there has been an act of violence or a flagrant and substantial defiance of or resistance to a lawful exercise of public authority and that, on account thereof, there is reason to believe that... (cont)

there exists a clear and present danger of a riot or other general public disorder, widespread disobedience of the law and substantial injury to persons or property, all of which constitute an imminent threat to public peace or order and to the general welfare of the... (cont)

City or a part or parts thereof, he may declare that a state of civil emergency exists within the City or any part or parts thereof."

674.302 clearly states that if there if a threat of a riot the Mayor can declare a Civil Emergency. It also says "City" and not "County", that language is why the order is only for COJ and not the beach cities or Baldwin. Those Mayors have their own civil emergency powers.

Once the Mayor declares a Civil Emergency, he is given the ability to limit 6 things under 674.304. The language is too long to post, but I'll give a summary of each point with the coordinating section so you can find it if you want.

The Mayor can:
674.304 (a) - establish a curfew for vehicles and pedestrians
(b) - prohibit the sale of alcohol
(c) - prohibit the public possession of alcohol
(d) - close places of public assembly
(e) - prohibit sale of gas (except into a car)
(f) - prohibit possessing gas

The next few sections get into the process of declaring a civil emergency

675.305 Filing and Publication - "A state of civil emergency or emergency measure declared, ordered or promulgated pursuant to Sections 674.302 through 674.304 shall, as promptly as practicable, be filed with the Council Secretary and delivered to appropriate news media... (cont)

for dissemination to the general public."

675.305 basically requires the Mayor to notify the City Council and the media of the civil emergency

674.306 Special meeting of Council. - "Concurrently with the declaration of the state of civil emergency, the Mayor shall convene the Council in special meeting, at which he shall report to the Council all the facts and circumstances known to him concerning the civil... (cont)

emergency and his recommendations in connection therewith."

674.306 does require a special meeting of the council to be concurrent (same time) be called at the same time as the declaration. There's two ways to read that. 1. the meeting must take place at the same time. 2. at the same time the Mayor must call a meeting to take place later

Reading 2 makes the most sense. How can you expect the city council to come to a meeting immediately during a riot?

The next section gets into duration and oversight.

674.307 Duration and termination of emergency. - "A state of civil emergency declared pursuant to Section 674.302 shall commence upon the declaration thereof by the Mayor and shall terminate at the end of a period 72 consecutive hours thereafter unless, prior to the... (cont)

end of the period, the Mayor by proclamation or the Council by resolution shall terminate the state of civil emergency. An extension of the 72-hour time limit must be accomplished by request from the Mayor and the concurrence of the Council by resolution... (cont)

adopted in regular or special meeting."

674.307 says the civil emergency lasts for 72 hours. It can be ended early by the Mayor or by a vote of the City Council.

In summary, the Mayor has the authority to declare a civil emergency if there is a riot (or threat of a riot). He can impose a curfew, ban alcohol sales, and ban fuel sales. The emergency lasts for 72 hours or until the Mayor ends it or the Council overrides the declaration.

A little additional digging: the local authority comes from the Florida Statutes, Chapter 870. The COJ language is identical to the state language. What goes for Jax, goes for every city in Florida.