TALLAHASSEE – A federal judge on Wednesday largely denied a request from a petition group to block some of Florida’s laws that change the way citizen-driven amendments reach the ballot.
When passing the law earlier this year, Gov. Ron DeSantis and the bill’s Republican sponsor said the petition process is plagued by fraud and requires reform.
But groups like Florida decided on healthcare that is about to obtain an amendment to expand Medicaid access in the 2026 poll, and immediately sued, saying the new laws are suppressing the ability of people to use the petition process. Other groups, including the recreational marijuana campaign Smart & Safe Florida, have joined the lawsuit.
US District Judge Mark Walker has largely denied the plaintiff’s request to block three sections of the new law.
The plaintiff asked Walker to temporarily block the requirement that the campaign file all petitions with the county election office within 10 days. They also challenged changes that slowed petitions and increased organizational fines that added new criminal penalties to fill out missing voter information.
The plaintiffs alleged that the law violated the original right to amend the political statement.
But Walker, who was nominated for the bench by former President Barack Obama, said the court precedent made clear that the initiative process doesn’t have to be the most user-friendly version possible.
Walker said the challenging group has yet to prove that it is “severely burdened” by the new law’s requirement to file petitions within 10 days and the increased late fines.
Instead, he said, “The record shows that these provisions merely indicate that the initiatives proposed for the plaintiffs are more expensive and inefficient.”
The marijuana and Medicaid expansion campaign says they have been affected by slower petition collections and discouraged volunteers since the law came into effect in early May.
Groups hoping to qualify for the 2026 vote will need around 900,000 verified petitions by early next year.
Of all groups, Walker granted an injunction to only one plaintiff at one point.
Jordan Simmons, project director for Medicaid Expansion Group, challenged some of the law, including violations of election laws against petition fraud in the Assault Act.
Walker sided with Simmons’ argument that the changes in assault laws were too vague.
Despite Walker rejecting most of the Medicaid expansion group, Florida spokesman Mitch Emerson decided on healthcare and called its domination a “major victory.”
“The court did not grant every part of our claim for preliminary relief, but this is far from the last words,” Emerson said in a statement. “This ruling was an extraordinary early step in the legal process, and we are optimistic about what’s coming, both for the rest of the HB 1205 we are challenging, and for the future of Florida’s citizen-led democracy.”
For many years, the group has used Florida’s voting initiative process, as a way to pass changes to state constitutions that lawmakers refuse to propose. Through petition collection, the group has now approved voters such as medical marijuana, restoration of felony voters, and wages of a minimum of $15.
Last year, DeSantis used the power of his administration to protect two amendments voted on through the petition process: the recreation pot amendments and abortion access.
A few months after both of these measures failed, Desantis’s office proposed a bill that would virtually make collection of petitions impossible.
During the injunction hearing in May, Smart & Safe Florida lawyer Glenburghans sponsored the 2024 voting initiative, which failed to legalize recreational marijuana, and hopes to get a similar amendment in the 2026 poll.
The challenges to the new law are ongoing, and the amendment group is attempting to block other provisions of the law with another request for a temporary injunction.
