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Lawsuit filed over Florida law signed by DeSantis that clamps down on amendment process

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Published  May 5, 2025 4:23pm EDT
Florida
FOX 13 News
Getting amendments on the ballot

Getting amendments on the ballot

Evan Axelbank reports.

The Brief

    • A group is suing in federal court over Florida's newly signed law that makes it tougher to get proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot for voters.
    • The group "Florida Decides Health Care" is fighting to get an amendment on the 2026 ballot that would require the state to expand Medicaid.
    • The new law increases financial penalties for allowing non-citizens or felons to handle petitions, and levies a $5,000 fine if a gatherer signs someone else's name.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - The next big fight in Florida could be over the state's citizen amendment process. 

Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that could make it much tougher to get proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot for voters. But now, a group fighting to get an amendment on the 2026 ballot is suing in federal court. 

RELATED: Florida legislative session to resume May 12. Here are the key measures already on the governor's desk

The backstory:

The bill is in response to complaints made last year during the fights over Amendments 3 and 4 by Desantis, who argued groups backing them were shady, and that they were ripe for fraud.

"It is totally inappropriate to use the Constitution in this way," DeSantis said. 

The state's response was to pass a bill, which the governor signed this weekend, that requires signature collectors to take training courses, shortens the time to submit signatures from 30 to 10 days, and requires all signees to give either a driver's license number or the last four digits of a Social Security number.

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What they're saying:

"It was already one of the more difficult states in the country, arguably the most difficult, to get a citizen-led ballot initiative on the process," said Mitch Emerson of the group "Florida Decides Health Care."

The group is in the process of collecting the 880,000 required petitions to get an amendment requiring Florida to expand Medicaid on the 2026 ballot. They sued in federal court, saying the law violates the U.S. Constitution's 5th and 14th Amendments by "imposing vague, punitive, and excessive requirements... And that it puts initiative sponsors, volunteers and petition circulators at constant, extraordinary risk of legal and financial liability."

"This law wasn't written to fix a problem," said Emerson. "It was written to create one for grassroots campaigns and everyday people."

The other side:

The law was written in response to state inquiries into those who gathered signatures to get the pro-choice Amendment 4 on the ballot, with the state finding 14,000 of the nearly one million signatures, under two percent, were invalid. 

READ: Florida legislative session going into overtime as lawmakers remain at odds over budget

The new law increases financial penalties for allowing non-citizens or felons to handle petitions, and levies a $5,000 fine if a gatherer signs someone else's name.

"There's obviously a lot of other issues beyond Medicaid expansion that will be affected by this," Emerson said. "And if they're not talking about it or addressing it at the legislature, this is the only remaining avenue for people to have their voice heard."

The bill also makes it illegal to collect or even possess more than 25 petition forms if someone is not registered as a petition circulator. It also requires a two-hour training course.

The Medicaid expansion group has only around 11,000 signatures, and must get to 880,000.

The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Evan Axelbank. 

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