The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday knocked a proposed constitutional amendment to ban possession of “assault-style weapons” from a prospective berth on the 2022 ballot.
In a 4-1 decision, the court ruled Ban Assault Weapons NOW’s 75-word ballot summary “affirmatively misleads voters” by contradicting broader text in the proposed amendment.
“Specifically, the next-to-last sentence of the ballot summary informs voters the initiative ‘exempts and requires registration of assault weapons lawfully possessed prior to this provision’s effective date’ when, in fact, the initiative does no such thing,” the majority opinion said. “Contrary to the ballot summary, the initiative’s text exempts only ‘the person’s,’ meaning the current owner’s, possession of that assault weapon.”
Of six petition-driven campaigns that have met the threshold for a Supreme Court review, Moody has challenged four, with one, an open primary proposal, qualifying for 2020’s ballot.
In January, the court struck down an energy choice measure, agreeing with Moody and a long list of opponents that its summary was misleading.
Floridians will vote on six proposed constitutional amendments in November:
• Amendment 1: Amend the state constitution from “every citizen” can vote to “only citizens” can vote.
• Amendment 2: Raise the state’s minimum wage from $8.46 an hour to $10 an hour in 2021, with $1-an-hour increases annually until it reaches $15 an hour in 2026.
• Amendment 3: Allow all voters to cast ballots in open primary elections for state Legislature, governor and cabinet, regardless of political affiliation.
• Amendment 4: Require constitutional amendments approved by voters in one election to do so again in a second election to be encoded.
• Amendment 5: Increase time during which a person may transfer Save Our Homes benefits to a new homestead property from two year to three years.
• Amendment 6: Allow homestead property tax discounts to be transferred to surviving spouses of deceased veterans.
