The group behind a Florida ballot measure to protect abortion rights in the state filed a lawsuit Wednesday morning against a DeSantis administration official, alleging they are engaged in an “unconstitutional” campaign to attack the referendum “using public resources and government authority.”
The lawsuit, filed by Floridians Protecting Freedom, is a direct response to the cease-and-desist letters Gov. Ron DeSantis’ (R) administration officials sent out to TV stations earlier this month, seeking to stop them from airing ads that advocate for the passage of Amendment 4. The ballot measure seeks to codify abortion access into the Sunshine State constitution, and will go before voters in November. Abortion is currently banned after six weeks in Florida.
The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, Tallahassee Division, against state surgeon general and head of the Florida Department of Health Joseph Ladapo, in his official capacity, and John Wilson, the former general counsel to the Florida Department of Health, in his individual capacity. It claims that the defendants violated FPF’s First Amendment rights by threatening sanctions against media organizations that aired its political advertisements in support of Amendment 4 — a proposal DeSantis opposes.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has resoundingly held that ‘[g]overnment officials cannot to attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views that the government disfavors’,” the complaint said. “FPF’s advertisement is pure political speech at the very heart of the First Amendment’s protections.”
“‘[T]he advocacy of a politically controversial viewpoint’ is, in fact, ‘the essence of First Amendment expression,’” the lawsuit continued. “The State’s threatened sanctions against third-party media organizations that host the advertisement — in a heavy-handed effort to silence FPF’s speech — is a classic and deeply disturbing example of unconstitutional coercion.”
Spokespeople for the Florida Department of Health and the governor’s office did not immediately respond to TPM’s request for comment.
FPF is seeking an injunction to stop the DeSantis administration “from taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions” against TV stations or other broadcasters for airing the FPF ads or “undertaking enforcement action against FPF for running political advertisements or engaging in other speech protected under the First Amendment,” according to the complaint.
The group is also seeking compensatory and punitive damages, as well as lawyers’ fees, for what it describes as the administration’s “egregious” and “willful” violation of FPF’s First Amendment rights.
“The state of Florida’s crusade against Amendment 4 is unconstitutional government interference — full stop,” Lauren Brenzel, a campaign director for the group, said in a statement shared with TPM. “The State cannot coerce television stations into removing political speech from the airwaves in an attempt to keep their abortion ban in place.”
“We will continue our campaign in the face of this blatant government interference,” Brenzel added, “but we must remain focused and continue to organize our communities because the choice this November is to either keep a near-total abortion ban with no real exceptions for rape, incest, or the health of the woman OR to vote YES on Amendment 4 and limit the government from intervening with private medical decisions.”
FPF’s lawsuit comes just two weeks after the DeSantis administration’s Department of Health sent a letter to some TV stations in the state, suggesting they could face criminal charges for airing ads that encourage voters to support Amendment 4.
The letter, first reported by Florida investigative journalist Jason Garcia, claimed that such ads violate Florida’s “sanitary nuisance” law and suggested stations may be committing a misdemeanor offense by airing them.
The DeSantis administration is now trying to intimidate television stations into taking down ads supporting Amendment 4 – the constitutional amendment on the November ballot that would overturn the near-total abortion ban that Ron DeSantis signed into law last year. pic.twitter.com/XIbCCTUfXQ
— Jason Garcia (@Jason_Garcia) October 5, 2024
Wilson, the former Florida Health Department general counsel named as a defendant in FPF’s lawsuit, argued that the advertisement in question, “Caroline” — which was sponsored by FPF’s “Yes on 4” campaign — was disseminating information that is “categorically false” and “dangerous” by saying Florida’s six-week abortion ban threatens the life and well being of pregnant women.
Despite what DeSantis’ Health Department claims, the six-week ban implemented in Florida is vague about protected exceptions. It has led to dangerous delays and denials of care for pregnant people in the state, and has criminalized certain types of medical care, according to a recent report from Physicians For Human Rights.
The DeSantis administration’s cease-and-desist letter isn’t the first or the only effort from the Republican governor to discourage or intimidate supporters of the abortion-rights amendment.
Last month, The Tampa Bay Times and other local news outlets reported that police were showing up at the homes of Florida residents who signed a petition to help get Amendment 4 on the ballot. Individuals reported being questioned by police about whether they actually signed the petition, according to the news outlet.
Some residents said the plain clothes police officers asked for verification that they signed the petition, claiming they were investigating potential signature fraud. Some said the police even asked for their identification, driver’s licenses or to confirm signatures, according to reporting from the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald.
Multiple county officials also confirmed to the Miami Herald last month that they’d been contacted by the Florida Department of State, which copies of signatures.
And last week, DeSantis’ administration released a report accusing the FPF organizers of committing “widespread petition fraud” in the signature drive to get the initiative on the ballot next month.
The report claims that organizers illegally paid circulators by the number of signatures they collected and submitted a “large number of forged signatures or fraudulent petitions” to get the amendment on the ballot.
The DeSantis administration also announced a $328,000 fine against the group.
“This campaign has been run above board and followed state law at every turn,” Brenzel, the campaign director, told TPM. “What we are seeing now is nothing more than dishonest distractions and desperate attempts to silence voters.”
The DeSantis administration also created a state-run website attacking the amendment, and they have been running ads promoting the current restrictive law.
Read the complaint here:
They never fail to show what creeps they are.
Hope publicity helps goose the vote in Florida. Really wonder what bubbles these government officials live in that they don’t understand they are literally the bad guys.
Another Mark Elias lawsuit.
It was telling last night when Ted Cruz got asked directly three separate times whether he supported abortion ban exceptions for rape and incest, and all he came up with was that it was up to the states. They know abortion rights is killing them.
The Republican Party, the so-called party of freedom, is fake, just like its leader and his minions. It is a fraud.
The inmates have taken over the asylum.