Friday, October 18, 2024

"It's the First Amendment, Stupid."

Juliann Ventura at The Hill:
A Florida judge issued a temporary restraining order against health officials in the state, citing the First Amendment and siding with a group that brought forward a lawsuit alleging that its political speech had been censored in the state after it sponsored an ad in support of an abortion rights ballot initiative.

The lawsuit came after the state’s Department of Health had sent a cease-and-desist letter to television stations in Florida that aired an ad sponsored by Floridians Protecting Freedom in support of Amendment 4, a ballot initiative that would enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution and overturn the current ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy
In the court documents, the judge ruled that “political advertisement is political speech — speech at the core of the First Amendment.”

“To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid,” the court documents read.