The Florida Republican Governor gets a beatdown from the judge on First Amendment ‘Free Speech Rights’ in America…
A Florida judge granted a temporary restraining order Thursday prohibiting Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration from threatening to prosecute TV stations that carry ads promoting the state’s abortion rights referendum on November’s ballot.
The big picture: A six-week ban took effect in Florida earlier this year, but if voters aprove the amendment next month it would guarantee abortion access until fetal viability — around 24–28 weeks of pregnancy.
Driving the news: Florida’s Department of Health sent a cease-and-desist letter earlier this month to TV stations that aired an ad supporting the measure, sponsored by Floridians Protecting Freedom, the coalition that put abortion access on the ballot.
Zoom in: The order prevents the defendants from “taking any further actions to coerce, threaten, or intimate repercussions directly or indirectly to television stations, broadcasters, or other parties for airing” the coalition’s speech, or “undertaking enforcement action” against them.
- The defendants are named as Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and John Wilson, who was general counsel for the state’s health department before he resigned last week.
- “Political advertisement is political speech — speech at the core of the First Amendment,” the judge wrote. “The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false.'”
- The judge added: “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”…..
Note….
This isn’t Trump ‘land’….Yet?
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