There was a noticeable spring in the steps of Tallahassee’s lobbying corps, government workers (those whose jobs weren’t cut) and public officials this week as players in the annual melee of the legislative session caught their breaths following a chaotic finale that kept lawmakers up to the predawn hours of last weekend.

Freed from their dawn-till-dark schedule, many spent the week reacquainting themselves with families that for all intents and purposes lost a parent or two to the session’s final days. But capital insiders also sifted through myriad pieces of legislation to determine if the session was successful or not, an annual ritual made more difficult this year as lawmakers passed no less than 40 conforming and conference measures spanning thousands of pages literally in the middle of the night.

Still, the atmosphere was darn right serene in a city that only last week was home to a cacophony of noise from the throngs fuelled by fifth floor M&Ms and Mountain Dew.

Such pastoral moments may be short lived.

Stung by an avalanche of legislation affecting pensions, teacher performance, elections, drug testing and abortions, to name a few, groups who fared poorly during the recently concluded session spent this week deciding whether they would fare better in courtrooms than they did in committee rooms.

Slammed by supermajorities in both chambers, groups with different political bents watched almost helplessly as wave after wave of Republican-backed legislation worked its way through. Those groups were huddling this week to determine what to do to regain some of the ground lost on a variety of fronts.

“Unfortunately, the list is long, very long,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, who added that the organization will likely have to triage its choices. “We can only do so much.”

Among the ACLU’s first targets will likely be a proposed constitutional amendment (SJR 1218) that would allow taxpayer dollars to go to religious groups. Another likely target is a proposed constitutional amendment (HJR 1179) that would prevent the Florida Constitution from being interpreted more broadly than the U.S. Constitution on abortion issues. That is important because the Florida Constitution’s privacy clause has been successfully used in the past to challenge abortion laws.

Looking beyond the Constitution, Simon said the group is likely to file separate challenges to an executive order requiring state agencies to drug test potential employees and another measure (HB 353) that requires all recipients of temporary financial assistance to test negative for drugs or be barred from collecting benefits.

Among the most politically charged issues is a measure dealing with elections. The proposal (HB 1355) makes changes to early voting, address changes and get-out-the vote campaigns. Republicans said the bill was necessary to crack down on election fraud, noting ominously that the Florida code contains loopholes for what the House sponsor called "mischief."