A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Thursday against Florida's surgeon general after the state health department, part of Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration, threatened to bring criminal charges against TV stations airing a pro-abortion amendment ad.
Officials from the health department called the ad "false" and "dangerous" to public health, but Judge Mark E. Walker had a response: "It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
The ad that provoked the onetime GOP presidential candidate's ire was produced by the group Floridians Protecting Freedom, which is supporting Amendment 4, a ballot measure to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution and reverse Florida's existing six-week abortion ban. It features a brain cancer survivor named Caroline, who says that state law would have blocked her from receiving the abortion that saved her life.
“The doctors knew that if I did not end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life, and my daughter would lose her mom,” she says in the ad. “Florida has now banned abortions, even in cases like mine.”
Joe Wilson, the general counsel at Florida's health department, sent cease-and-desist letters on behalf of the state to news stations airing the the ad, essentially threatening criminal prosecution unless they took it down. Floridians Protecting Freedom, in turn, filed a lawsuit against Wilson and Florida surgeon general Joseph Ladapo, accusing them of “unconstitutional coercion and viewpoint discrimination" and urging the court to shield them from the state's threats to sue.
Seven days after sending the threats, Wilson resigned from his post, saying in a letter that he was uncomfortable with decisions he was ordered to make.
“A man is nothing without his conscience,” the letter said. “It has become clear in recent days that I cannot join you on the road that lies before the agency.”
Judge Walker agreed that the state's threats constituted "viewpoint discrimination" and wrote that the group presented “a substantial likelihood of proving an ongoing violation of its First Amendment rights through the threatened direct penalization of its political speech.”
"Whether it’s a woman’s right to choose, or the right to talk about it, Plaintiff’s position is the same — 'don’t tread on me,'" he continued. "Under the facts of this case, the First Amendment prohibits the State of Florida from trampling on Plaintiff’s free speech."
Walker's ruling blocks Ladapo from issuing further threats to news stations over the ad through Oct. 29.
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