Florida Health Dept. Lawyer: I Quit Rather Than Carry Out DeSantis’ Censorship Threats
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a government official go from sending a clearly censorial First Amendment-violating threat letter to quitting his job to telling a court, “I was pressured to do that and I resigned so that I wouldn’t do that again” so quickly.
Last week, we wrote about the fairly notable ruling in Florida, where federal judge Mark Walker included the classic line: “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”
A group was purchasing airtime for TV commercials in support of a Florida ballot initiative that would protect women’s autonomy in dealing with issues related to pregnancy. Florida’s Department of Health sent a letter, signed by its General Counsel John Wilson, to the TV stations, claiming that airing the commercial could violate the state’s “sanitary nuisance” laws, normally used for getting property owners to clean up a leaking septic tank. At least one TV station then refused to air the ad in question in response to the letter.
The non-profit that bought the ad time sued, and the judge noted (quite easily) that this was about as obvious and blatant a violation of the First Amendment as anyone could remember.
We noted in our original article that Wilson (whose signature appeared on the letter) had already resigned a day after the letter was sent. He told the media that his “conscience” couldn’t allow him to stay.
Late last week, he went a step further and filed an affidavit with the court saying that Ron DeSantis’ office had drafted the letter and told him to send it, which he did. But he resigned when they asked him to follow through with more such letters and to retain lawyers to go after the TV stations who still ran the ad.
On October 3, 2024, in my official capacity as General Counsel, | sent the letters referenced in paragraph 4 of Plaintifl’s complaint.
I received drafts of the letters directly from Sam Elliot, Assistant General Counsel for the Executive Office of the Governor, earlier that day.
I did not draft the letters or participate in any discussions about the letters prior to October 3, 2024.
Ryan Newman, General Counsel for the Executive Office of the Governor, and Jed Doty, Deputy General Counsel for the Executive Office of the Governor, directed me to send them under my name and on the behalf of the Florida Department of Health.
On October 10, 2024, I resigned from my position as General Counsel in lieu of complying with directives from Newman and Doty to send out further correspondence to the media outlets, similar to the October 3, 2024 letters.
On October 10, 2024, prior to my resignation, I was directed by Mr. Newman to execute contracts for outside counsel to be retained by the Department to assist with enforcement proceedings pursuant to the October 3, 2024 letters.
This should be a huge fucking scandal. This is from the very same party that has falsely accused the Biden White House of “censorship” for simply sending reports of possible misinformation to social media companies and asking them if it violated their policies. This is from the very same party that passed laws to force social media companies to host speech, which they claimed was necessary to “support free speech.”
Yet, here they are issuing literally direct threats to TV stations, demanding they not air political ads from their political opponents. It’s one of the most blatant attacks on the First Amendment we’ve seen by government officials in some time. And it’s getting very little attention.
Anyway, kudos to Wilson for at least being willing to admit that this was bad and refusing to follow through on further actions here. It would have been nice if he’d never agreed to send the original letters at all.
Either way, with his affidavit, Floridians Protecting Freedom (the plaintiff in the case and the purchaser of the ads) has now dismissed its claims against Wilson directly. However, it will continue to move forward with the case against State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
In light of the affidavit of former Florida Department of Health General Counsel John Wilson attached as Exhibit A to this notice, which explains the circumstances in which Mr. Wilson was directed to sign his name on the October 3 letter at issue in this case, Plaintiff has determined that it is unnecessary to pursue individual capacity claims against Defendant Wilson.