U.S. District Courthouse for the Northern District of Florida, Tallahassee. (Photo by Michael Moline/Florida Phoenix)
A federal judge on Tuesday extended for 14 days his temporary order barring the Florida Department of Health from intimidating broadcasters airing an ad from the group backing the abortion-rights amendment.
The order stemmed from cease-and-desist letters the department sent threatening criminal charges against television stations airing an ad from Floridians Protecting Freedom, claiming that the ad spread misinformation that put public health at risk.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee first put the temporary order in place on Oct. 17. The extension lasts for 14 days or until Walker decides if it’s necessary to continue the bar for the duration of the suit Floridians Protecting Freedom brought against the health department, which will go on past Election Day.
Court records show DeSantis’ office behind threats to broadcasters airing pro-abortion ad
The abortion-rights measure, Amendment 4, would bar government interference with abortion through viability, typically around 24 weeks, or to protect the life of the pregnant person. It needs at least 60% approval from voters to pass.
First Amendment protection of political speech
During Tuesday’s hearing, Walker remained unconvinced by the DeSantis administration’s arguments that it could stop political speech because it was akin to a political candidate going on television to say that the 911 emergency lines don’t work.
“Riddle me this, Batman,” Walker said to the department’s attorney, Brian Barness, suggesting another way of phrasing his argument is that the First Amendment yields to the political interest of the state.
The ad at issue is about a Tampa resident named Caroline who says Florida’s abortion restrictions would have prevented her from undergoing the procedure had they been in place when she began chemotherapy to treat her brain cancer.
Unambiguously false or debatable?
Barnes called the ad unambiguously false because of the exception to save the life of the mother in the state’s law banning most abortions after six weeks of gestation.
“I don’t think it requires a lot of interpretation,” Barnes said. He added that the department hasn’t taken a position on whether it would prosecute the sponsor or broadcasters if a person claimed their spouse died because they didn’t seek care after seeing the ad.
Ben Stafford, one of the plaintiff’s attorneys, defended the ad, saying Caroline’s claim that Florida banned abortion in cases like hers wasn’t an easily verifiable fact.
“At worst, it’s debatable,” Stafford said.
The plaintiffs entered as evidence a declaration from Caroline’s doctor stating that she would not perform the abortion under the six-week ban because the abortion itself didn’t save Caroline, who continues to undergo treatment.
“What the First Amendment does is leave disagreements like that to the free market of ideas,” Stafford said regarding the debate about whether the ad was truthful or not.
The DeSantis administration’s threat to the broadcasters led to the resignation of the health department’s general counsel, John Wilson. Floridians Protecting Freedom initially included him as a defendant but dropped him from the case following his departure. He also provided an affidavit attesting that the governor’s office had drafted the cease-and-desist letters and ordered him to send them.