DeSantis Settles my Free Speech Lawsuit after 18 Months in Court
DeSantis stomps on freedom of information
The First Amendment has sought to protect advocacy journalism in the United States since its establishment, and while that right hasn’t always been honored, it sets a standard that protects journalists and activists from government censorship. Unfortunately for press freedom, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has stomped on that tradition by virtually declaring his administration to be government regulators of journalism and speech, in the tradition of authoritarian figures like Hungarian despot Victor Orban.
I have gotten a taste of what that propensity towards censorship looks like from DeSantis. Due to my political views and criticism of DeSantis, the state’s largest law enforcement agency, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), opened a criminal intelligence case against me without a criminal predicate. That’s when they started surveilling my social media while sharing my name, photo, and vehicle information with other police agencies and institutions like public universities in the state, in addition to other personal information.
The FDLE surveillance document was extensive, including 83 pages of electronic correspondence between FDLE employees showing how they track my social media metrics and how many times my posts have been viewed and shared. They weren’t just targeting me. Attached to the surveillance document was a redacted list labeled “associates,” which has columns with headers that include photos, names, and comments.
It’s important to note that the surveillance document from the FDLE states “the below individual has no history of violence” when referring to me. What is it that merits my surveillance then? Merely that I have engaged in First Amendment-protected advocacy in-person and through my social media accounts for the public to see.
It is disturbing that Florida law enforcement agencies are secretly surveilling government critics and those associated with them. In 2021, I was detained for 30 minutes while attempting to attend a publicly funded press conference held by Ron DeSantis. I was removed from the Port of Miami and issued a trespass warning without being given an explanation after parking my vehicle in a public lot, an ordeal which included a police officer telling me “not for you” when I noted that the Port was a public place.
When I asked the police officers who stopped me what the reason for my being detained was, I suspected that they had my vehicle information because there was no other way that the police would have known to detain me when I parked my vehicle, a fact which was later confirmed through an incident report obtained through a public records request.
The dislike DeSantis’ office has for me is so strong that they blocked me from the governor’s press mailing list, barring me from receiving press releases that are paid for by Florida taxpayers like me. I figured this out after being kicked off repeatedly and then getting a message notifying me of being blocked after numerous attempts to re-subscribe. This is particularly questionable considering previous judicial precedents barring elected officials from blocking constituents on social media and other platforms.
In June of 2022, I filed a federal lawsuit against DeSantis, the City of Miami, Miami-Dade County, and FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass, to defend free speech and ensure that independent journalists have access to press conferences paid for by taxpayers. I wanted to send them a clear message that these attacks against independent journalists and media critical of him and his allies can’t and won’t be tolerated.
In a victory for government transparency, the DeSantis administration agreed to settle after a year and a half of battling in federal court. Under the settlement, DeSantis’ office agreed to allow me to resubscribe to its media advisory email list, and they surrendered the full unredacted version of the 89-page “situational awareness” that the FDLE used to surveil my activities, including the page that outlined associates of mine who were surveilled for no fault of their own.
It’s just ridiculous that I had to spend a year and a half in court just so I could have full access to a document about myself. On the government’s side, they had the FDLE lawyers, governor’s office lawyers, and they wasted God knows how much of our taxpayer dollars hiring outside lawyers, only to have to settle with a scrappy activist and two good lawyers who were interested in government transparency and accountability, who took the case pro bono.
Moving forward, there will be public records requests filed to find out just how many tax dollars were wasted by the state in fighting this lawsuit. This is not the first time the DeSantis administration has had to settle in embarrassing circumstances with plaintiffs fighting for government transparency. Just a few weeks ago, Florida settled a lawsuit by former State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith over the state withholding COVID-19 data from the public.
The DeSantis administration has been lucrative for the lawyers profiting from these lawsuits provoked by unconstitutional actions, and we Floridians foot the bill. Enough tax dollars have been wasted in Florida trying to curtail First Amendment rights.
Thanks Thomas for all that you do! Keep up the good fight!
Thank you for your integrity and exposing the truth about the endless assaults on Democracy.
You are really a good person.