Florida Supreme Court sides with DeSantis in fight over state-backed anti-abortion website

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously rejected a petition filed by a Palm Beach County attorney alleging that top state officials have improperly tried to interfere with a November referendum on abortion rights.

Adam Richardson, of Lake Worth, filed the petition Sept. 10 amid a controversy about an Agency for Health Care Administration webpage and video public-service announcement about abortion issues.

While the agency contended the information presented facts, critics said it was biased against a ballot measure, known as Amendment 4, that seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state Constitution.

Richardson, in part, asked the Supreme Court to issue what is known as a writ of quo warranto to Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Jason Weida, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Moody “forbidding them from misusing or abusing their offices to interfere with the election for Amendment 4, and to unravel whatever actions they have already taken to do so.”

The Supreme Court’s main opinion, written by Justice John Couriel, said quo warranto cases have been used to question whether state officials have improperly exercised their power.

But the opinion said Richardson’s petition did not follow legal precedent, in part because it was based on a criminal law that limits political activities of government officials.

“For one thing, we have never held that the writ lies to compel the criminal prosecution of a state actor or to enable a private citizen to enforce a state criminal statute,” Couriel wrote. “It is hard to see how he asks us to do anything short of that, for the statute is express about what a violation of its requirements constitutes: ‘a misdemeanor of the first degree.’”

Chief Justice Carlos Muniz and Justices Charles Canady, Jamie Grosshans and Meredith Sasso joined the opinion. Judge Renatha Francis wrote a concurring opinion, and Judge Jorge Labarga concurred in the result of the main opinion.

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This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2024.