Judge Orders State to Stop Threats Against TV Stations: ‘It’s the First Amendment, Stupid’

In simple terms – “it’s the First Amendment, you idiot” – a federal judge on Thursday sided with supporters of Florida’s abortion rights proposal and ordered the state’s Department of Health to stop making threats against television stations that advertise the amendment .

The injunction addresses a lawsuit against the state by Floridians Protecting Freedom, a group that advocates for Amendment 4, which will appear on the Nov. 5 ballot. That order expires Oct. 29, when a hearing on the lawsuit is scheduled.

The strongly worded ruling by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker prevents the department from “taking any further action to coerce, threaten or threaten broadcasters for airing the commercials” or from taking “enforcement actions” against them.

He cited a case covered in his judgment and gave a brief summary:

“To keep it simple for the state of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

“Political advertising 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 disapproved speech ‘false,'” wrote Walker of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee.

The lawsuit was the latest in a series of legal battles between the DeSantis administration and supporters of an amendment that would protect the right to abortion until the fetus is viable. It would override the state’s ban on abortion after the first six weeks of pregnancy in most cases.

In the commercial, produced by Floridians Protecting Freedom, a Tampa woman describes how she was diagnosed with brain cancer at 20 weeks of pregnancy, before state restrictions were imposed that would have blocked the abortion she received before the procedure.

On Oct. 3, the DeSantis administration’s health department sent a cease-and-desist letter to several Florida stations threatening criminal prosecution if they did not stop airing the commercial. That order expires Oct. 29, when a hearing on the injunction is scheduled.

The letter said the ad was “categorically false” because an abortion could be performed after six weeks if necessary to save a woman’s life or “there is a serious risk of significant and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function.” to avert”.

In a rebuttal, the group claimed that the exception would not have applied because the woman had a terminal diagnosis. The abortion did not save her life, the group said; it just prolonged it.

Floridians Protecting Freedom then filed a lawsuit against State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who heads the department, and John Wilson, the department’s general counsel, before resigning last week.

The group sought an injunction on the grounds that their right to freedom of expression was being violated.

In his ruling, Walker said the state could object to the Constitutional Amendment, but the First Amendment “prohibits the State of Florida from trampling on plaintiff’s freedom of expression.”

Lauren Brenzel, campaign director for Floridians Protecting Freedom, called the decision a “decisive first victory.”

“The court confirmed what we have always known: the government cannot silence the truth about Florida’s extreme abortion ban,” Brenzel said in a statement. “It is a deadly ban that endangers women’s lives. This ruling is a stark reminder that Floridians will not back down in the face of government intimidation.”