Judge tells Florida's top doctor not to threaten TV stations over abortion-rights ads

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Judge tells Florida's top doctor not to threaten TV stations over abortion-rights ads

2024-10-19 05:10 Last Updated At：05:21

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A judge has blocked the head of Florida's state health department from taking any more action to threaten TV stations over an abortion-rights commercial they've been airing.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker's ruling Thursday sided with Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group that produced the commercial promoting a ballot measure that would add abortion rights to the state constitution if it passes in the Nov. 5 election. The group filed a lawsuit earlier this week over the state's communications with stations.

“The government cannot excuse its indirect censorship of political speech simply by declaring the disfavored speech is ‘false,’” the judge said in a written opinion.

He added, “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo and John Wilson, who was then the top lawyer at the health department before resigning unexpectedly, sent a letter to TV stations on Oct. 3 telling them to stop running an FPF ad, asserting that it was false and dangerous. The letter also says it could be subject to criminal proceedings.

FPF said about 50 stations were running the ad and that most or all of them received the letter — and at least one stopped running the commercial.

The group said the state was wrong when it claimed that assertions in the commercial were false. The state's objection was to a woman's assertion that the abortion she received in 2022 after she was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor would not be allowed under current state law.

The state hasn't changed its position. In a statement Thursday, a spokesperson for the health department again said that the ads are “unequivocally false.”

The judge's order bars further action from the state until Oct. 29, when he's planning a hearing on the question.

The ballot measure is one of nine similar ones across the country, but the campaign over it is the most expensive so far, with ads costing about $160 million, according to the media tracking firm AdImpact. It would require the approval of 60% of voters to be adopted and would override the state law that bans abortion in most cases after the first six weeks of pregnancy, which is before women often realize they're pregnant.

The administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken multiple steps against the ballot measure campaign.

Harris and Trump seek Arab American votes in Michigan in effort to shore up battleground states

2024-10-19 05:18 Last Updated At：05:20

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump both sought support from Arab American voters Friday as they campaigned in Michigan, trying to lock down support in a battleground state that could decide the presidential race next month.

The Republican nominee visited a new campaign office in Hamtramck, one of the nation’s only Muslim-majority cities, and was joined there by Mayor Amer Ghalib, a Democrat who has endorsed Trump. Meanwhile, three city council members in the same town have endorsed Harris.

“His visit today is to show respect and appreciation to our community," said Ghalib, who presented Trump with a framed certificate of appreciation.

Michigan is one of three “blue wall” states that, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, will help decide the election, and the diverse voting blocs are key to winning the state. Both Trump and Harris, his Democratic rival, made a push for union workers and Black voters as they worked every angle for support.

“It's an election for president. It’s not supposed to be a cake walk for anyone. There are very important issues at play," Harris said.

David Plouffe, a top campaign adviser for Harris, said Friday on CNN that he believed all of the swing states were still in play, but the key was zeroing in on voting blocs.

“We’re going to treat every cohort like they’re a swing voter,” he said. “We’re going to fight for every vote.”

Trump has been trying to capitalize on frustration with Harris over the U.S. backing of Israel’s offensive in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon, following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas on Israel.

His allies have held meetings for months with community leaders in Michigan, which has a sizable population of Arab Americans, particularly in and around Detroit. Asked about the Hamtramck mayor’s endorsement, Trump said: "I mean, frankly, it’s an honor. I’ve got a lot of endorsements, Arab Americans, from a lot of people.”

Trump said he didn’t think the Arab American community would vote for Harris “because she doesn’t know what she’s doing.”

At the campaign office, Trump said he was also getting support from unions and that the head of the United Auto Workers — who has endorsed Harris — doesn’t have a clue.

“I’ve saved Michigan,” he said, telling the crowds he would bring back more manufacturing. “We’ll end up having those plants built over here instead of in other countries.”

Trump also said that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, one of the architects of the Oct. 7 attack, who was killed by Israelis, “was not a good person.”

"That’s my reaction. That’s sometimes what happens,” he said at the airport in Detroit.

Trump also said he would be speaking to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said President Joe Biden "is trying to hold him back ... he probably should be doing the opposite, actually,” he said.

Both Biden and Harris have said Sinwar’s death is an opportunity to stop the violence. “My message remains, first of all, we have got to end this war," Harris said.

On Friday, 52 Lebanese Americans endorsed Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, saying in a letter that they “know that the voice of our community will be heard” under their leadership.

The letter reiterates calls for a cease-fire, and it cites a recent decision by the Department of Homeland Security to extend temporary legal status to Lebanese citizens in the U.S. Such status is made available to people from certain countries marred by war, turmoil or natural disasters.

But Harris has also faced demonstrators protesting U.S. support of Israel in the conflict. During a closed-door meeting Thursday with students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, she was confronted by one, based on a video posted by a pro-Palestinian student group on social media.

According to the video, as Harris was telling students she was invested in them, a protester interrupted her saying, “And in genocide, right? Billions of dollars in genocide?”

The demonstrator was eventually escorted out by university police, as he continued recording.

At Harris' first event of the day, scores of supporters gathered in Riverside Park in Grand Rapids, on a carpet of fallen orange leaves under cloudless skies. The county leaned Republican for many years, and was won by Trump by 3% in 2016. But Biden won the county in 2020, and it has increasingly voted Democratic recently.

A phalanx of Democratic governors — Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Wes Moore of Maryland, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Kathy Hochul of New York — took the stage before Harris.

Whitmer tore into Trump, calling him “a petty man who tells dangerous lies, and he’s always looking for someone else to blame.”

Harris stepped out to huge cheers as she ran through the differences between herself and Trump, cautioning that electing him would be dangerous for the nation, and slamming him as anti-union.

“The election is here. The election is here right now," she said as she urged everyone to vote. “Your vote is your voice. Your voice is your power in a democracy.”

Harris travels next to Lansing, where she will speak at a United Auto Workers union hall and promote the White House's record of supporting domestic car manufacturing. Her final event of the day is a rally in Oakland County, northwest of Detroit.

Trump has his own event in Oakland County on Friday afternoon before holding a rally in Detroit in the evening.

His Detroit event will be his first there since insulting the city last week. While warning what will happen if Harris is elected, he said that “our whole country will end up being like Detroit." The city spent years hemorrhaging residents and businesses, plunging into deep financial problems, before rebounding in recent years.

Price reported from Detroit, and Cappelletti reported from Lansing, Michigan. Associated Press writers Isabella Volmert in Grand Rapids, Colleen Long in Washington and Scott Bauer in Milwaukee contributed to this report.