Using plain speak – “it’s the First Amendment, stupid” – a federal judge on Thursday sided with supporters of Florida’s abortion-rights proposal and ordered the state’s health department to stop threatening TV stations that run ads promoting the amendment.
The temporary restraining order addresses a lawsuit filed against the state by Floridians Protecting Freedom, a group campaigning for Amendment 4, which will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. This order expires Oct. 29, when a hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker’s sharply worded ruling prevents the department from "taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions” against broadcasters for airing the ads or "undertaking enforcement action" against them.
In citing one case used in his ruling, he offered a brief summary:
“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
“Political advertisement is political speech — speech at the core of the First Amendment. The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,' “ wrote Walker, of the U.S. District Court Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee.
The lawsuit was the latest in a series of legal tussles between the DeSantis administration and advocates for amendment, which would protect the right to abortion until fetal viability. It would override the state's ban on abortion in most cases after the first six weeks of pregnancy.
The commercial, produced by Floridians Protecting Freedom, features a Tampa woman describing how she was diagnosed with brain cancer when she was 20 weeks pregnant, ahead of state restrictions that would have blocked the abortion she received before treatment.
On Oct. 3, the health department, part of the DeSantis administration sent a cease-and-desist letter to several Florida broadcasters threatening criminal prosecution if they did not stop airing the commercial. This order expires Oct. 29, when a hearing on the injunction is scheduled.
The letter asserts the ad is “categorically false” because abortion can be obtained after six weeks if it’s necessary to save a woman’s life or “avert a serious risk of substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.”
In a rebuttal, the group claimed that exception would not have applied because the woman had a terminal diagnosis. Abortion did not save her life, the group said; it only extended it.
Floridians Protecting Freedom then filed suit against state Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who leads the department, and John Wilson, general counsel for the department before resigning last week.
The group sought a temporary restraining order, claiming its right to free speech was being violated.
In his ruling, Walker said the state can advocate against the amendment, but the First Amendment “prohibits the State of Florida from trampling on Plaintiff’s free speech.”
The health department hasn't changed its position about the ads. In a statement, a spokesperson said they are “unequivocally false.”
Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for Floridians Protecting Freedom, called the decision a “critical initial victory.”
“The court has affirmed what we’ve known all along: the government cannot silence the truth about Florida’s extreme abortion ban,” Brenzel said in a statement. “It’s a deadly ban that puts women’s lives at risk. This ruling is a powerful reminder that Floridians will not back down in the face of government intimidation.”
