'Constitution protects no such thing': Florida AG defends threats against TV stations

Florida's attorney general doubled down on the state's right to threaten television stations with criminal prosecution for airing ads in favor of a constitutional referendum to restore abortion rights.

In a new filing in Floridians Protecting Freedom v. Ladapo, Republican Ashley Moody told a federal district court in Tallahassee that the First Amendment does not protect the right to broadcast "false" claims about the state's near-total ban on elective abortion procedures, which kicks in at six weeks of gestation — before most women even know they're pregnant.

The state Department of Health under Gov. Ron DeSantis and his health chief Joseph Ladapo have threatened TV stations running an ad about a woman with cancer expressing fear about being unable to access necessary abortion care for her health. They have warned stations could face prosecution under an obscure "sanitary nuisance" law, arguing that the ad creates a public health hazard by falsely discouraging women from seeking medical services they have a legal right to.

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Experts have said the ad does not make false claims about the abortion law — and that even if it were, it would be legally protected political speech under the First Amendment.

Moody insists in the new filing that this isn't the case.

"FPF claims a constitutional right to publish objectively false information about the availability of medical services, even if the publication of that false information causes a woman not to seek medical care in a life-or-death emergency," said the filing. "But the Constitution protects no such thing. Accordingly, FPF is unlikely to succeed on the merits of its First Amendment claim, and injunctive relief is improper."

The filing went on to say lies about medical services were not sanctioned by the Supreme Court in United States v. Alvarez, a 2012 case that voided a law making it illegal to lie about receiving military awards.

So far, federal courts don't appear to be buying this argument. Last week, a federal judge issued an order temporarily blocking Florida from making such threatening communications to TV stations and wrote a blistering rebuke accusing the state of flouting the First Amendment.