TALLAHASSEE—A controversial new law overhauling how amendments are put on the ballot was challenged by three activist groups during an hours-long hearing Thursday, resulting in unusual comparisons to sausage and references to “killing babies.”
The odd debate centered on HB 1205, a sweeping law backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The measure changes how sponsors of a proposed constitutional amendment can collect and turn in petitions, imposing new deadlines and penalizing violators with hefty fines or felony charges.
So when three separate groups fighting to enshrine recreational marijuana, Medicaid expansion, and the right to clean water in the Florida Constitution argued that parts of the law are too vague, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker appeared to agree.
“Sometimes the sausage ain’t real tasty,” Walker speculated during the Thursday court hearing.
He responded to the state’s attorney, Mohammad Jazil, who argued that the law’s language, while not explicitly obvious, was legally sound and the result of a mish-mash of compromises between lawmakers and lobbyists.
Like a sausage.
“Sometimes I’ve found the sausage made down the street is nasty,” Walker added, swiping at the Legislature.
The attorney for Smart and Safe Florida, the group trying to put a recreational marijuana amendment on the 2026 ballot after narrowly failing last year, took the sausage analogy one step further, insisting the law is maggot-ridden.
“The sausage is not only bad, it’s rancid, and it’s filled with maggots,” Glenn Burhans, Jr. declared.
‘Killing Babies?’
Florida Demands Healthcare, the committee behind a proposed Medicaid expansion amendment, first filed suit against the state on May 5, two days after DeSantis signed HB 1205 into law.
Later joined by Smart and Safe and the League of Women Voters—backing an amendment allowing Floridians to sue if a state agency allows “threat of harm” to Florida waters—the plaintiffs asked Walker to temporarily block parts of HB 1205 they claim to be unconstitutional.
This includes the provisions shortening the time sponsors have to turn in petitions from 30 days to 10 days, imposing a fine of up to $5,000 each day a petition is turned in late, and making it a felony to retain a voter’s personal information or to collect more than 25 petitions from non-family members without registering with the state.
“It will squash the initiative process, pure and simple,” Burhans argued.
Though Walker requested “grace” as he decides whether to enjoin parts of the law, he pointedly questioned both sides throughout the three-and-a-half-hour hearing. His biggest rub seemed to be with Jazil arguing that a voter’s address would not be considered “personal information” the same way a Social Security number or driver’s license would be under the new law.
“We’ve got people blowing up clinics…hurling things and screaming at women,” he said, referencing a car bombing outside a California fertility clinic earlier this week. “It’s not a stretch to say, ‘we’re gonna target people signing these baby-killing initiatives.’”
Walker brought up Amendment 4, a proposed initiative that would have expanded abortion access in Florida had it not failed at the ballot box in November. He pointed out that it was taken “so seriously” that “the governor spent millions of dollars” to defeat it.
DeSantis came under heavy fire for shelling out millions of taxpayer dollars to defeat both Amendment 4 and Amendment 3, Smart and Safe’s first attempt at making marijuana constitutional.
Between him and First Lady Casey DeSantis, now toying with a run to succeed her husband as governor, the conservative powerhouses hosted 16 statewide events lambasting the measures. Both failed with majority support, falling just short of the 60% threshold needed to pass.
Months later, after Smart and Safe and the group behind Amendment 4 were fined hundreds of thousands for election violations, DeSantis pressured the legislature to crack down on fraud in the petition process.
On May 3, after dozens of amendments and hours of vicious debate, DeSantis signed the legislature’s final product into law.
