On May 4, proponents of one particular Florida initiative filed a federal lawsuit to overturn new restrictions on petitioning for Florida initiatives. Florida Decides Healthcare v Byrd, n.d., 4:25cv-211. The lawsuit was filed only two days after the new restrictions, included in House Bill 1205, had been signed into law. Here is the Complaint. Page 21 and the following pages list the challenged restrictions. The first part of the Complaint as a history of previous attempts by the Florida legislature to make it difficult to qualify initiatives.
Among the challenged restrictions is the ban on out-of-state circulators. The case also challenges the fact that the new law goes into effect in the middle of the initiative drive. The case is assigned to U.S. District Court Judge Mark E. Walker, an Obama appointee.
They rolled the dice and got Judge Walker, who has been friendly to petitions seeking to block Florida overreach that stifles voting rights.
On a separate note, increasing the minimum sentencing guidelines for criminal penalties for mere mistakes or vaguely defined violations are a form of chilling effect of First Amendment right to redress and petition. This also seems to hurt the ability of minor party candidates to collect qualifying petitions.
Most people who sign the same petition more than once do so by mistake and election clerks catch this and invalidate any signatures beyond the first time they signed. People should not be criminally charged for this. Often times the people who sign more than once by mistake are elderly people who do not have the best memories.
ANTI-DEMOCRACY MINORITY RULE GERRYMANDER LEGISLATURES IN ALL 50 STATES–
ENACTING THE VARIOUS ANTI-INIT LAWS
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PR
APPV
TOTSOP
Andy, ignorance is no excuse before the law. So what if they’re old? They can die in prison and thus save taxpayers money. All of the restrictions are reasonable, and none of them go nearly far enough.