Gabrielle Russon
A Leon County Circuit Court Judge declined to shut down a state website pushing negative messaging about the Amendment 4 abortion rights initiative.
Judge Jonathan Sjostrom ruled against Floridians Protecting Freedom, the political committee that led the effort to get Amendment 4 on the November ballot.
The group sued last month over the Agency for Health Care Administration website, which says “Florida is protecting life. Don’t let the fearmongers lie to you.” It also lists reasons why voters should reject Amendment 4, including claims that the amendment would deregulate the health care industry and make abortions unsafe for women.
The Amendment 4 campaign sought a temporary injunction to shut down the website. But Sjostrom disagreed.
“When courts speak of justiciability, the essence of the point is that judges must exercise lawful authority without hesitation but must resist the temptation to power unconstrained by a reasonable resort to judicial process,” Sjostrom wrote.
“In an election campaign under these circumstances, the political power reserved to the people in (part) of the Florida Constitution means that it is not for the courts to intervene in this referendum campaign to decide what the people will be permitted to consider. This case is not justiciable.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis has defended the state’s website.
“Everything is above board. We have resources to do public service announcements across a wide variety of fronts,” DeSantis said last month. “Everything that’s put out is factual … and I’m glad they’re doing it. I think it’s informative.”
Meanwhile, reproductive freedom advocates accused DeSantis and Florida of using taxpayer resources to fight a ballot initiative, and framed it as a disinformation campaign.
“Florida’s government has crossed a dangerous line by using public resources to mislead voters and manipulate their choices in the upcoming election,” said Michelle Morton, staff attorney for the Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
To enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution, Amendment 4 needs at least 60% of the vote to pass, with both sides launching ad campaigns and fighting to gain any advantage going into the election.
2 comments
cassandra was right
October 1, 2024 at 1:58 pm
Great news from Georgia!
“A Georgia judge has struck down the state’s 6-week abortion ban! In an absolutely epic ruling, Fulton county Judge Robert McBurney didn’t just repeal the law—but eviscerated it as forcing women to be “human incubators.” —-AED
Judge rules:
“Women are not some piece of collectively owned community property the disposition of which is decided by majority vote. Forcing a woman to carry an unwanted, not-yet-viable fetus to term violates her constitutional rights to liberty and privacy, even taking into consideration whatever bundle of rights the not-yet-viable fetus may have.
…It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid’s Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could–or should–force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another.” —-Jessica Valenti, Abortioneveryday.com
FREEDOM! DEMOCRACY!
Abortion rights are SELF-EVIDENT!
VOTE YES On 4!
Bill Pollard
October 1, 2024 at 7:15 pm
Agreed.
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