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Press Freedom

Florida GOP lawsuit to censor TV stations fails Sunshine State — and First Amendment

Oct. 20, 2026 / Freedom of the Press Foundation

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis speaks as her husband, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, looks on during a 2023 campaign event in Iowa.
AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Tallahassee, Fla., Oct. 19, 2026 — The Republican Party of Florida is suing a dozen TV stations in Central Florida, seeking to block a state Democratic Party election advertisement about the Hope Florida scandal, in which $10 million of federal Medicaid funds may have been misappropriated by Gov. Ron DeSantis and his former chief of staff, James Uthmeier — as well as reporting about the grand jury proceedings referenced in the ad.

Both DeSantis and Uthmeier, who is now running for attorney general, had spent hundreds of thousands in state funds to keep the grand duty report secret until it was leaked to a South Florida broadcaster in late August. Both men admonished media outlets for reporting on the leaked material, saying it was a crime. In the lawsuit filed on Oct. 16, the state GOP also threatened broadcasters with criminal prosecution for airing the material.

The lawsuit relies on a recent Florida appeals court decision ordering the grand jury report about the scandal expunged. But the requested injunction goes well beyond the court order, threatening news coverage and Floridians’ access to information about an affair that has dominated headlines in the Sunshine State for more than two years.

The following can be attributed to Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Deputy Director of Advocacy Adam Rose:

“Who would have thought Florida politics could be so swampy? The Hope Florida scandal has been headline news for months. Whether related grand jury records were improperly released has no bearing whatsoever on the First Amendment rights of the press. The Florida GOP should know that news outlets cannot be punished or censored for publishing information from whistleblowers, especially when the appellate court blamed a government employee for failing to keep it secret. The seminal Supreme Court case that says it’s not the job of journalists to maintain the government’s confidences literally has Florida in the name.”

The following can be attributed to First Amendment Foundation Executive Director Bobby Block:

“This lawsuit is an attempt to ride roughshod over the First Amendment by trying to bully broadcasters into silence. The 1st District Court of Appeal ordered the report expunged, but it did not order the media to stop reporting on information already made public. Expungement does not erase the First Amendment protections. Politicians do not get to decide what the press can report or what voters are allowed to know. The constitutional rights of Americans cannot be sacrificed on the altar of anyone’s political ambitions.”

Please contact FPF or First Amendment Foundation if you would like further comment.