Medicaid expansion group sues to block new law targeting citizen-led amendment petitions

A political committee pushing to get a Medicaid expansion initiative onto Florida’s 2026 ballot is suing state officials to block a new law that adds hurdles for citizen-led constitutional amendment drives.

Leaders of Florida Decides Healthcare warned that the stricter measures imposed by the law on citizen-led ballot initiatives could cost them millions of dollars and are meant to prevent future initiatives from reaching the ballot.

“We are standing up to an outrageous attack on democracy by filing a lawsuit to block HB 1205, a law that turns Florida’s citizen-led amendment process into a bureaucratic nightmare,” said Co-Chair Holly Bullard during a virtual press conference.

“Let’s be clear, this isn’t about transparency or accountability. This is about control. This law was written by politicians who want to decide which voices get heard, which ideas make it to the ballot.”

The Legislature passed HB 1205 Friday with Gov. Ron DeSantis signing it hours later. Represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group filed a federal lawsuit Sunday night in the Northern District of Florida.

Republicans pushed for the new legislation this Session after initiatives to legalize recreational marijuana and protect abortion rights failed in November’s election. GOP lawmakers said HB 1205 stops bad actors who are fraudulently collecting petitions and using out-of-state petition circulators. 

“This law wasn’t written to fix a problem. It was written to create one for grassroots campaigns and everyday people,” Florida Decides Healthcare Executive Director Mitch Emerson said Monday. 

HB 1205 now makes sweeping changes, including limiting the number of signed petitions a volunteer can collect before having to register as an official petition circulator. Violators could be charged with a third-degree felony.

Other changes include speeding up the timeline for signed petitions to be submitted from 30 days to 10 days, adding stiffer penalties for violations to the new rules and requiring petition signers to write either the last four digits of their Social Security numbers or their driver’s license numbers on petitions. 

Florida already requires ballot initiatives to win with at least 60% of the vote — a higher threshold than most states. HB 1205’s new rules are meant to be the final blow to slow future citizen-led initiatives from getting on the ballot, the group said.

“These new rules are designed to make it nearly impossible for everyday people to have a voice in the laws that shape their lives and to make sure that only the wealthy and politically connected have the means to get on the ballot,” Emerson said. “But we are not afraid. We are fighting back with this lawsuit. We are challenging this law because we believe in democracy.”

Florida Decides Healthcare is advocating for a Medicaid expansion to cover 1.4 million Floridians who fall into a gap of earning too much to get Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, the group said. Supporters have collected 100,000 signatures so far to get a constitutional amendment on the ballot. But the new rules made in the middle of their campaign put those signed petitions in limbo, the lawsuit said.

Matletha Bennette, the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Senior Staff Attorney, said the lawsuit is centered around First Amendment grounds on the right to circulate petitions and pointed to two Supreme Court cases about political speech as precedent on their arguments.

The law doesn’t take effect until July 1, but the group plans to file a temporary restraining order in the next few days.

“This law has already impacted our campaign,” Emerson said. “The fear is very real. Volunteers are second-guessing whether they can legally help. Communities are confused, and that’s exactly what the law was designed to do.”