Oct. 18 (UPI) — Declaring “it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” a federal judge has temporarily blocked the administration of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from threatening television stations for airing ads supporting an abortion rights constitutional amendment.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker of the Northern District of Florida on Thursday granted a restraining order requested by Floridians Protecting Freedom Inc. against DeSantis’ administration after the state health department demanded that local television stations stop airing a 30-second ad advocating a “yes” vote on Amendment 4, a measure that would outlaw legislation restricting or banning abortion in the state.
The ad titled “Caroline”, which began airing Oct. 1, features a woman who survived brain cancer saying Florida’s strict current six-week anti-abortion law would have prevented her from receiving a life-saving abortion.
The Florida Health Department, which is using taxpayer funds in an effort to defeat Amendment 4, soon thereafter sent cease-and-desist letters to local television stations calling the ad “false” and “dangerous” and demanding it be taken off the air as a “public health nuisance” while threatening criminal penalties for failure to do so.
The official letter was signed by health department general counsel John Wilson, who abruptly resigned from his post last week, the Miami Herald reported.
At least one station pulled the advertisement from the air, Floridians Protecting Freedom said in its legal challenge. The group blasted the letter in communications with the television stations on Oct. 4, calling it “not just an unfounded request” but rather “unconstitutional state action. The letter is a textbook example of government coercion that violates the First Amendment.”
In his 17-page decision, Walker on Thursday sided with the group, agreeing with its contention that “the state has crossed the line from advocating against Amendment 4 to censoring speech by demanding television stations remove Plaintiff’s political advertisements supporting Amendment 4 or face criminal prosecution.”
Walker declared the ad is indeed constitutionally protected “political speech,” despite the protests of Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,'” he wrote. “The very purpose of the First Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind through regulating the press, speech, and religion … To keep it simple for the State of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
The decision enjoins Ladapo from “taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions directly or indirectly to television stations, broadcasters, or other parties for airing Plaintiff’s speech” until Oct. 29.
The DeSantis administration denounced Walker’s ruling, calling it “another order that excites the press.”
“The ads are unequivocally false and put the lives and health of pregnant women at risk,” DeSantis spokesperson Julia Friedland said in a statement issued to media outlets. “Florida’s heartbeat protection law always protects the life of a mother and includes exceptions for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking.”
