Judge Brutally Smacks Down DeSantis Ban on Pro-Abortion Ad: ‘It’s the First Amendment, Stupid’

Federal Judge Mark Walker swiftly shot down a ban issued by the administration of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that targeted an ad backing a pro-abortion ballot measure in the state.

Florida Amendment 4 would amend the state’s constitution to include the right to abortion before fetal viability or when needed to protect the life of the mother. The initiative requires 60% of the vote to pass. Currently, abortions are banned after six weeks of pregnancy.

On Wednesday, a group called Floridians Protecting Freedom, which backs the amendment, sued in federal court after the DeSantis administration ordered TV stations to stop airing an ad the group filmed. The Florida Department of Health, led by the governor’s handpicked peddler of vaccine misinformation, Joseph Ladapo, sent letters to stations claiming that the ad was false and a “sanitary nuisance.” Moreover, it said airing it could result in criminal charges.

Walker, a U.S. district court judge in Tallahassee, handed down his ruling on Thursday.

“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,'” he wrote before citing a U.S. Supreme Court case decided in 1945. He then translated the court’s ruling in plainspoken terms:

“The very purpose of the First Amendment is to foreclose public authority from assuming a guardianship of the public mind through regulating the press, speech, and religion.” Thomas v. Collins, 323 U.S. 516, 545 (1945) (Jackson, J., concurring). “In this field every person must be his own watchman for truth, because the forefathers did not trust any government to separate the true from the false for us.” Id. To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.

The state may appeal the ruling.

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