TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge who recently chastised Florida officials for “trampling” on free speech has continued to block the state’s health chief from taking further action to threaten TV stations that they are running ads for an abortion rights measure on next week’s ballot.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker extended a temporary restraining order, siding with Floridians Defending Freedom, the group that created the ads promoting the ballot question that would add abortion rights to the state constitution if passed on November 5.

Walker made the decision from the bench after hearing arguments from campaign lawyers and state officials. The order expands on an earlier order barring state surgeon general Joseph Ladapo from taking any further action to coerce or intimidate broadcasters who air the ads.

Walker said extending the temporary restraining order would give her more time to rule on the preliminary injunction the abortion rights campaign is seeking. The order will last until Election Day and expire on Nov. 12, unless the judge rules before then.

The group submitted the process after Ladapo and John Wilson, who was then the top attorney at the state health department before he unexpectedly resigned, sent a letter to television stations on Oct. 3 telling them to stop running a abortion rights adstating that it is false and dangerous. The letter also says the broadcasters could be prosecuted.

The ad in question features a woman named Caroline Williams, who said Florida’s current law — which bans most abortions after six weeks — would have barred her from having the procedure her doctors said was necessary to prolong her life. after she was diagnosed with terminal brain. cancer in 2022. Her providers would not continue her cancer treatment while she was still pregnant.

An attorney for the state argued that the claims made in the ad are dangerously misleading and could put Floridians at risk if they don’t seek medical care because they believe all abortions in the state are prohibited.

Spreading “false information about the availability of emergency medical services” is not protected by the Constitution, state attorneys wrote in legal filings.

At Tuesday’s hearing, attorney Brian Barnes compared the FPF ad to a hypothetical ad falsely claiming the state’s 911 system had shut down, creating a public health emergency.

“We see this case as being controlled by the same legal principles that would apply to 911,” Barnes said.

An attorney for FPF claims “the ad is true” and features a Florida resident describing her own medical circumstances in her own words.

Attorney Ben Stafford argued that robust free speech protections are vital to a functioning democracy, especially in matters where there is clear disagreement about difficult moral and religious issues, such as abortion.

“What the First Amendment does is leave things like this in the public marketplace of ideas,” Stafford said, “not at the whims of a government censor.”

Walker’s ruling on Tuesday expands an Oct. 18 order that prohibits state officials from “infringing” on the free speech rights of those with whom they disagree.

“The government cannot excuse indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring that the disfavored speech is ‘false,'” the judge said in the earlier order.

He added, “To put it simply for the state of Florida: It’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

Tuesday’s hearing is the latest development in an ongoing battle between abortion rights advocates and officials in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration, which has had its own state-funded campaign to block the vote measure.

If approved by 60 percent of Florida voters, the constitutional amendment would protect the right to abortion up to fetal viability, considered to be beyond 20 weeks. The measure would override the state’s current law, which bans most abortions after six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

In the weeks leading up to the election, DeSantis held campaign-style, taxpayer-funded rallies with doctors and religious leaders to advocate against the proposed amendment. Four state agencies have set aside millions of dollars in public funds to create their own ads touting the abortion measure and another proposed constitutional amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana use in the state — a move critics say that it violates a state law that prohibits government officials. to use his public office for electoral activities.