TALLAHASSEE — The Florida Supreme Court on Monday said it will take up an appeal by a convicted felon who was one of 20 people accused by Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials in 2022 of registering and voting when they were ineligible.

Justices issued an order agreeing to hear the appeal by Terry Hubbard, who went to the Supreme Court in October after the 4th District Court of Appeal ruled that charges against him should move forward.

As is common, Monday’s order did not explain the justices’ reasons. But the order came after Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office contended in a brief last month that the Supreme Court should decline to take up the case.

The order did not set a date for arguments.

DeSantis and other state officials made a high-profile announcement in August 2022 about voter-fraud charges against 20 convicted felons, including Hubbard. The announcement came less than three months before the 2022 general election, when DeSantis won a second term. It also came after DeSantis and other leaders had made a major issue of trying to crack down on what they said was voter fraud.

The Supreme Court case centers on a question about whether the statewide prosecutor’s office had authority to file charges against Hubbard. A Broward County circuit judge dismissed the case because he said Hubbard’s alleged wrongdoing occurred in one judicial circuit and that the statewide prosecutor only had jurisdiction in cases involving multiple circuits.

But a panel of the 4th District Court of Appeal in July overturned that ruling, and the full appeals court later declined a request for a rehearing.

In the brief filed last month at the Supreme Court, Moody’s office argued, in part, that the statewide prosecutor had jurisdiction because the alleged voting crimes involved two judicial circuits. That is because Hubbard filled out voter-registration applications in Broward County and the information was transmitted to the Florida Department of State in Leon County. Broward County is in the 17th Judicial Circuit, while Leon County is in the 2nd Judicial Circuit.

“His conduct formed part of a broader transaction that crossed circuit lines: By registering to vote, he triggered governmental action in the Seventeenth and Second Judicial Circuits,” the brief said. “By law, the Broward County Supervisor of Elections was required to transmit information from his voter-registration form to the secretary of state in Leon County, which then reviewed that information in Leon. Only then could Hubbard successfully vote in Broward. The Fourth District (Court of Appeal) therefore correctly found that Hubbard’s actions ‘occur[red] in both Broward and Leon County,’ implicating two judicial circuits. No more is required.”

In a Nov. 4 brief, Hubbard’s attorneys disagreed with the state’s argument and wrote that the Supreme Court should take up the issue because of other pending cases.

“Voting issues have been thrust into the public and political dialog over recent years,” Hubbard’s attorneys wrote. “By the very nature of the issue, legal resolution of voting matters inherently has widespread impact. Indeed, there are numerous cases on this very issue currently pending in various stages across the state of Florida. Therefore, resolution from this (Supreme) Court is necessary in this case to clarify specifically the extent to which the Office of the Statewide Prosecution has authority and discretion usurp the authority of the locally elected state attorney and to prosecute these cases.”

In its decision, a majority of the appeals-court panel also cited a 2023 change in state law that allowed the statewide prosecutor to handle such cases and said that change should apply retroactively to Hubbard’s prosecution.

Florida voters in 2018 approved a constitutional amendment aimed at restoring the voting rights of convicted felons who have completed terms of their sentences. The amendment did not apply to people with convictions for murder or sex offenses. The 4th District Court of Appeal ruling said Hubbard was convicted in 1989 of a sex offense.

Armstrong & Getty