The Heritage Foundation Behind Effort to Falsify Text of Florida's Abortion Amendment
And Governor Ron Desantis' PAC for defeating state ballot measures shares a treasurer with Trump's PACs
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The Heritage Foundation Behind Effort to Falsify Text of Florida's Abortion Amendment
It’s been a bad week for Governor Ron DeSantis and his handlers at the Heritage Foundation. In a nutshell, Florida’s courts continue to reject GOP-led efforts to both block an abortion amendment from the November ballot and get away with misleading language and false information in Amendment 4’s text.
It’s not surprising that the Republican Party is litigating a ballot measure that would enshrine the right to abortion up to 24-weeks in Florida’s Constitution. What is shocking is how deeply involved Project 2025’s creator, the Heritage Foundation, and a religious university is in intervening in the referendum process, and more broadly, Florida’s election.
The state courts have so far stymied the partisan and deeply corrupt effort to defeat a measure via deceptive means. But the fight is not over. And deserves far more scrutiny than it’s been getting in the press.
Appeals Court unanimously rejected Florida Republicans challenge to a lower court decision
On Monday, a 3-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed Florida’s appeal challenging a 2023 circuit court's opinion on the state's abortion ballot measure, called Amendment 4. The court declined to intervene, calling Florida’s request “moot,” and determined, "the order on review is based on a financial impact statement that is no longer operative. No judicial determination or action remains for the circuit court based on the complaint before it." It also ruled that the ballot petitioners, Floridians Protecting Freedom, can file a new claim against the state’s revised financial impact statement.
The effort to enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution came in response to Governor Ron Desantis’ 15-week abortion ban in 2022, which has since been reduced to a 6-week ban in the 2023 Heartbeat Protection Act. Last year, the state’s Financial Impact Estimating Conference (FIEC) drafted and finalized an original fiscal impact statement for the amendment, which it deemed to be "indeterminate" as future litigation costs are not considered for amendments.
In June, Circuit Judge John C. Cooper found that it was "inaccurate, ambiguous, misleading, unclear, and confusing" and ordered it be revised to reflect the state’s analysis in the 6-week abortion ban that had gone into effect in May. That lawsuit was filed by the petitioners who argued that the analysis showed that restricting abortions would cost the state more money.
The GOP-controlled Florida Government has been corrupted by The Heritage Foundation
As the state appealed that decision, state House Speaker Paul Renner, who represents Florida’s legislative district 19, and state Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, who represents Florida’s 28th district, reconvened the FIEC panel to sneakily rewrite the statement.
And they brought in some far-right partisan interests to help them. Not just ANY far-right partisan interests. These GOP Florida legislators hired researchers from Project 2025’s Heritage Foundation and the Catholic University of America (CUA) to manufacture their desired results.
The two figures from The Heritage Foundation who cooked the numbers are Chris Spencer, who serves as the head of Florida’s State Board of Administration, and Rachel Greszler, who is a fellow of the organization’s Roe Institute and is paid $75 per hour to represent Florida’s House of Representatives. Notably, Spencer previously served as DeSantis’ budget chief.
The third person tapped for the project was Michael New, who serves as an assistant professor of social research at CUA’s Busch School of Business and is paid $300 per hour by the Governor’s office to speak at FIEC meetings.
The new statement, finalized on July 15, includes the cost of hypothetical legal challenges if Amendment 4 passes in November and falsely claims the state could be forced to pay for the procedure under Medicaid.
It also deceptively states that while the overall economic impact of the constitutional amendment can’t be determined, the “increase in abortions may negatively affect the growth of state and local revenues over time.” This language is misleading and confusing to voters.
The fabricated statement goes to the Florida Supreme Court
The petitioners moved quickly after the appeal court’s decision and filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. In a 31-page brief, Floridians Protecting Freedom asked the court to toss out the FIEC’s financial analysis of the measure, arguing that legislative leaders have no authority to direct a panel of economic experts to revise the financial impact statement for Amendment 4.
The group also alleges the FIEC improperly inflated the amendment’s cost to taxpayers.
Governor Ron DeSantis’ new PAC shares a Treasurer with Trump’s PACs
As litigation continues, Gov. DeSantis and Florida Republicans have a plan in place to defeat the abortion amendment and another amendment that would legalize recreational marijuana (Amendment 3). In June, the governor launched a PAC called the "Florida Freedom Fund," which has raised $128,900 as of July 12. The funds are also going toward GOP candidates up and down the state ballot.
Interestingly, the treasurer of the PAC is Bradley T Crate, a political operative who serves as Donald Trump’s go-to treasurer for all his PACs.
Crate, the CEO of Red Curve Solutions, has faced several complaints by the FEC for violating campaign finance law. In 2018, the FEC filed a complaint that Donald J. Trump for President made illegal charity contributions to Paws Place Dog Rescue in the amount of $10K.
Earlier this year, another complaint was filed alleging that Red Curve, the Trump 2024 Campaign, the Trump JFC, Save America, the Trump MAGA Committee, and MAGA PAC violated 52 U.S.C. § 30101, the Federal Election Campaign Act. The complaint included 2 charges: One for failing to disclose payments for legal expenses and one for making contributions that are prohibited and excessive by paying the legal fees of Trump’s PACs. Crate is the treasurer of all the PACs.
One must wonder how Crate is operating DeSantis’ PAC. A big question I have is whether Crate is funneling money from Trump’s PACs through his company into the Florida Freedom Fund.
Abortion ballot measure updates
On Tuesday, the Arkansas Supreme Court granted a motion for emergency relief to Arkansans for Limited Government, the petitioning organization behind the effort to put an abortion amendment on the ballot. The court ordered the AK Secretary of State John Thurston to count the initial signatures collected by volunteer canvassers by Monday, July 29, and share the total count with the court. It also granted a motion for a potential 30-day provisional cure period, which would enable petitioners to collect more signatures to meet the 90K signature threshold pending the court’s review of the initial count. The caveat here is that the court would only green light it if findings show the total count is above 75% to meet the minimum 90K threshold.
On Thursday, Thurston’s office announced it had completed the initial count and submitted it with the court. According to the court document, Thurston’s office states that volunteer canvasses collected 87,657 signatures.
Donald Trump told his nephew that disabled people “should just die”
Donald Trump’s nephew Fred Trump III had a lot of tea to spill in his upcoming book All in the Family: The Trumps and How We Got This Way, which debuts on July 30. In an excerpt published by TIME on Wednesday, Trump detailed an exchange with his uncle, then President Donald Trump, following a meeting in the Oval Office in which he advocated for providing housing support for people with disabilities. In a show of callousness, the MAGA leader told his nephew, who’s son is disabled, “Those people . . . The shape they’re in, all the expenses, maybe those kinds of people should just die.” Trump’s nephew explained that his Uncle was “talking about expenses. We were talking about human lives. For Donald, I think it really was about the expenses, even though we were there to talk about efficiencies, smarter investments, and human dignity.”
FBI raids Long Island home of former aid to New York Governor Kathy Hochul
On Tuesday, the FBI executed a search warrant at the Long Island home of New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s former deputy chief of staff. The nature of the investigation is unclear and no charges have been filed against Linda Sun or her husband Chris Hu at this time. Sun was appointed by Hochul in September 2021 and departed the following year in November 2022 to serve as the deputy commissioner for strategic business development at the state Department of Labor. 4 months later she was allegedly fired for misconduct—according to an annonymous source speaking with the Associated Press, the matter was referred to law enforcement. In May 2023, she joined Austin Chen’s congressional campaign as camapgin manager and departed in January. According to NBC New York, property records show that Sun and Hu owned the house until March when it was transferred to a trust.
Sinclair anchor resigns
New reporting from Popular Information reveals that the lead anchor of the evening news broadcast by Sinclair, the second-largest television station operator in the United States, resigned in January over the network’s right-wing partisan agenda. Eugene Ramirez told the independent outlet that one of his top issues was the company’s requirement to report on at least 3 stories per night produced by the Rapid Response Team (RRT). RRT aggregates information from far-right sources, including press releases and social media posts from Republican officials or groups. One current employee described the team as “the right-wing propaganda arm of the national digital operation.” In addition, the company required anchors to cover “packages” produced by the network’s D.C. bureau, which had a strong far-right bias or included falsified narratives. The network also primarily books far-right guests, including Moms 4 Liberty and the Heritage Foundation spokespeople, and instructed Ramirez and other anchors to not challenge their lies or interrupt them.
Christopher Wray questions Trump’s account that a bullet struck his ear
On Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray sat before the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee to testify about the security failure at Trump’s July 13 Pennsylvania rally. In addition to sharing new details about the shooter’s behavior leading up to his failed assassination attempt, Wray called into question Trump’s claim that a bullet struck his ear. He told lawmakers, “There’s some question about whether or not it’s a bullet or shrapnel that hit his ear. As I sit here right now, I don’t know whether that bullet, in addition to causing the grazing, could have also landed somewhere else.” Wray also testified that on July 6, the day Thomas Matthew Crooks registered to attend the rally, he Googled Lee Harvey Oswald’s position from President John F. Kennedy when he shot and killed him. And that 2 hours before Trump spoke, Crooks flew a drone approximately 200 yards from the stage for 11 minutes and watched a live feed from it on his phone.
Wray also shared that investigators believe that the shooter used a gun with a collapsable stock and that he accessed the roof of the building without a ladder. He added that in addition to finding the drone in Crooks’ vehicle, investigators found 2 explosives, as well as one in his home. Investigators believe that Crooks did not have the capability to detonate the explosives from his position.
Republicans also took the opportunity to attempt to ask for information about Vice President Kamala Harris. They asked if Wray has had regular briefings with Harris, what her demeanor is like, and what issues she appeared concerned about. Democrats also took the opportunity to deflect the subject of the hearing by asking Wray about Project 2025. Neither of these lines of questioning had any business being asked in a hearing about the attempted assassination of the leader of the MAGA party.
The Christian Nationalists are coming for Obergefell and other landmark laws
On Monday, Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who denied marriage licenses to gay couples in defiance of the 2015 Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, filed a lawsuit to reverse the landmark civil rights law. The request is part of Davis’ appeal of a jury’s 2023 decision awarding the couple $100K in damages for her blatant discrimination against the LGBTQ community. And, sadly, taking away the right to same-sex marriage is not the only precedent reversal she is asking the court to reconsider. In her 73-page brief with the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, she is also asking the court to “reconsider” Lawrence v. Texas (the right to same-sex intimacy) and Griswold v. Connecticut (the right to birth control).
It may seem odd that Davis would blatantly overreach in an appeal to avoid paying a bigotry debt. But it’s clear that the religious hate group representing her got Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ message and they’re using her case to get the legal ball rolling on overturning all rights for people they can’t control.
Davis has been represented by Orlando, Florida-based Liberty Counsel since at least 2015, a virulent anti-LGBTQ nonprofit that illegally operates as a political organization. The group currently opposes Florida’s abortion ballot measure and has openly threatened to file a lawsuit to ask the court to declare fetal personhood or issue a total abortion ban if the measure passes.
Notably, the brief written by Liberty Counsel cites the concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. It argues that “Obergefell should be overturned for the same reasons articulated by the court in Dobbs”—that it “was wrong when it was decided and it is wrong today because it was based entirely on the ‘legal fiction’ of substantive due process, which lacks any basis in the Constitution.” This is the same language Thomas used in his opinion, which no other justice joined. He also wrote that the court should also overrule Lawrence and Griswold, suggesting that both decisions were “demonstrably erroneous.” The cherry on top was the bat signal he sent out to religious bigots. He wrote that no one has asked the court to overturn these rulings and that he would like someone to do so. Liberty Counsel got the message.
Thomas wasn’t the only Supreme Court Justice cited in the brief. It also cited Justice Samuel Alito’s Originalist language in the majority opinion he wrote for Dobbs. Specifically, Alito’s “history and tradition” test. The brief writes, “even if substantive due process is not itself overturned, Obergefell should be, because the right to same-sex marriage is neither carefully described nor deeply rooted in the nation’s history.”