Constitutional Amendments

A new Florida law making it harder to get citizen-led amendments on the ballot faces a federal court challenge. The trial began Monday. Here’s what’s at stake.

Smart & Safe Florida, the campaign pushing the marijuana amendment, says the pronouncement is “premature” and “final and complete” signature count by counties hasn’t been reported yet.

A circuit judge backed arguments by Smart & Safe Florida, which faces a Sunday deadline for submitting enough valid signatures to put the proposed amendment on the November ballot.

The state urges a judge to reject a lawsuit challenging directives that invalidated tens of thousands of petition signatures for a proposed ramendment, citing fraud prevention and voter inactivity.

The step sets the stage for a judicial review of the ballot initiative seeking to legalize recreational pot. Justices will hear oral arguments on Feb. 5, according to a schedule posted on court's website.

Lawyers for the Smart & Safe Florida committee said they were waiving the right to appeal Leon County Judge John Cooper's ruling “to provide finality to this matter and certainty to the result.”

The decision overrules a lower court order that blocked portions of the law from being enforced.

Cuts to Medicaid and the ACA are coming next year. A grassroots movement is attempting to lessen the blow by petitioning for an expansion of Medicaid on the 2026 voter ballot.

The state will increase the minimum wage to $14 an hour, per the constitutional amendment that voters passed in 2020.

The decision blocked a prohibition in the law on non-Florida residents and non-U.S. citizens collecting and delivering petitions.

The motion, filed Monday, disputed that the restrictions violate the First Amendment, including saying they “affect conduct, not speech.

Contributions during the quarter included $715,000 from the California-based Tides Foundation and $400,000 from the Florida Policy Institute, a state Division of Elections report shows.