The injunction remains in effect until October 29th.

“Whether the issue is a woman’s right to choose or the right to speak about it, plaintiff’s position is the same: Don’t tread on me,” wrote U.S. District Judge Mark Walker. “On the facts of this case, the First Amendment prohibits the State of Florida from trampling on plaintiff’s free speech.”

“To keep it simple for the state of Florida: It’s First Amendment stupid,” Walker wrote.

A first victory for supporters of abortion rights

The ruling is a victory for Amendment 4 sponsor Floridians Protecting Freedom. The organization argued that the Department of Health and Human Services’ cease-and-desist letters to television stations that aired one of its commercials constituted coercion and viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment.

Yes on 4 campaign director Lauren Brenzel celebrated the ruling, calling it a decisive initial victory.

“The court confirmed what we have always known: the government cannot silence the truth about Florida’s extreme abortion ban. “It is a deadly ban that endangers women’s lives,” Brenzel wrote in a press release. “This ruling is a stark reminder that Floridians will not back down in the face of government intimidation.”

Shortly after sending the cease-and-desist letters, the health department entered into a $1.4 million contract with two law firms to pursue lawsuits against “false political advertising.” The plaintiffs cited these contracts as evidence in the lawsuit.

“Of course, the Surgeon General of Florida has the right to express his own position on a ballot measure,” Walker wrote in the decision. “But it would undermine the rule of law if the state could turn its own advocacy into the direct suppression of protected political expression.”

The health department stands by its argument that the ad poses a danger to other women.

“The fact is that these advertisements are clearly false and harmful to public health in Florida,” James Williams, the department’s communications director, wrote in an email to Florida Phoenix. “The media continues to ignore the fact that Florida’s heartbeat protection law always protects a mother’s life and provides exceptions for victims of rape, incest and human trafficking.”

The judge rebuked the DeSantis administrator’s attorney

Earlier, Walker fired back during a hearing Thursday morning in front of a lawyer defending the DeSantis administration.

He asked Brian Barnes point-blank whether the ad in question stated that Florida’s six-week ban lacked an exception to protect the life of the mother. Barnes, who represents Ladapo in the lawsuit filed by Floridians Protecting Freedom, responded that the ad implied the absence of exceptions.

“I don’t want to waste my time not answering my questions,” Walker said during their exchange about the content of the ad.

Floridians Protecting Freedom sought an injunction barring the Florida Department of Health from coercing, threatening or intimidating the organization or broadcasters for broadcasting a speech in favor of the amendment.

Amendment 4 would protect access to abortion through viability, typically around 24 weeks, or protecting the life of the pregnant person. Approval from at least 60% of voters is required for passage.

The group filed the case Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida after the Department of Health and Human Services sent cease-and-desist letters on Oct. 3 to television stations that aired an advertisement for the “Yes on 4” campaign.

Amendment 4 sponsor sues over DeSantis administration’s threats to broadcasters

The state argues it is a matter of public safety

The DeSantis administration argues that it did not violate First Amendment protections for political speech by threatening to prosecute broadcasters who played the commercial featuring a woman diagnosed with brain cancer. At least one station, WINK TV in Fort Myers, stopped airing the ad after receiving the letter, the Amendment 4 organizer’s complaint says.

In the ad, a woman named Caroline says that Florida’s abortion restrictions would have prevented her from having an abortion if they had been in effect when she began chemotherapy.

Barnes argued that the ad endangered other women because Caroline’s statement could discourage them from seeking medical attention for a pregnancy complication, Barnes said.

He insisted that the state also had an interest in stopping a theoretical commercial that said 911 doesn’t work.

“How on earth would a political ad supporting policy change constitute commercial speech?” Walker responded to Barnes’ hypothetical scenario.

Barnes also argued that Floridians Protecting Freedom had no standing to sue because the company could not prove harm because it continued to advertise elsewhere and had not stopped its campaign in support of the Amendment.

High process budget

The organization presented as evidence two contracts showing that the Ministry of Health hired law firms to initiate litigation against political advertising. The department ordered the companies to pay a total of $1.4 million on Oct. 10, the documents said.

These contracts show that the state’s threats against broadcasters are not hollow, said Ben Stafford, one of the plaintiffs’ lawyers.

Stafford called the DeSantis administration’s tactics the “most egregious violation of the First Amendment” he could remember.

Meanwhile, Floridians Protecting Freedom faces a lawsuit from abortion opponents asking a state court to remove Amendment 4 from the ballot. The plaintiffs in the Orange County case are fighting the legitimacy of the signatures collected to put the question to voters.

Their complaint cites an Oct. 11 preliminary Florida Department of State report that accuses Floridians Protecting Freedom of “widespread voter fraud.” The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration is also caught up in the dispute between the governor and Floridians Protecting Freedom. In September, the agency published a webpage claiming that Amendment 4 “endangers the safety of women.”

The Florida Supreme Court and a state court in Tallahassee allowed the website to remain online.