DeSantis vs. the courts: How many of the Florida governor's plans have been blocked?

Gov. Ron DeSantis has built a powerful lawmaking machine. With a GOP supermajority in the Florida Legislature, DeSantis has been able to easily muscle through a staggering array of legislation designed to turn Florida into a conservative paradise and a potential blueprint for America.

However, the courts don't always agree.

Many of the most controversial laws from the governor and would-be presidential candidate have been criticized as being unconstitutional, discriminatory and cruel, and sometimes his ambitious aims run into multiple lawsuits and legal roadblocks. Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for DeSantis' presidential campaign, called the lawsuits “the tactics of activists who seek to impose their will on people by judicial fiat.”

"I think this woke thing is really a mind virus," DeSantis told the crowd during a rally in Spartanburg, South Carolina in April. "It infects these different institutions. Woke represents a war on truth. We will never surrender to the woke mob.

"Florida," the governor said, repeating what has become a campaign slogan, "is where woke goes to die."

Most recently the U.S. Department of Justice urged a federal judge to block a new Florida law that restricts people from China and six other countries from owning property in the state.

Here are some of the most notable court rulings on DeSantis's primary policies.

July 3, 2023: Judge blocks parts of Florida elections law

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction against parts of a new elections law in Florida that targeted voter-registration groups, saying the case “arises from Florida’s latest assault on the right to vote.”

In a 58-page decision, Walker pointed out the parts of SB 7050 which prevented non-U.S. citizens from “collecting or handling” voter-registration applications ("The Free State of Florida is simply not free to exceed the bounds of the United States Constitution,” he wrote) and made it a felony for voter-registration group workers to keep personal information of voters (too vague, it "leaves open a broad universe of what could be considered ‘personal’ information”).

June 23, 2023: Florida's drag show law blocked

SB 1438: Protection of Children never uses the words "drag show," but many saw the law barring children from attending "adult live performances" as targeting the LGBTQ community. Multiple Pride events have been canceled in Florida for fear of the 2023 law and a drag show venue, Hamburger Mary's in Orlando, challenged it. A federal court blocked it for being overly vague and unconstitutional.

June 21, 2023: Court strikes down Medicaid ban on gender care

U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declared that Florida's 2022 rule and statute that prohibit Medicaid payment for transition care for transgender people such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries violates the federal Medicaid statute, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition of sex discrimination. Hinkle had previously upheld the ban last year against a previous version of the lawsuit.

"The elephant in the room that should be noted at the outset. Gender identity is real. The record makes this clear," Hinkle wrote in the order.

June 6, 2023: Florida's ban on gender-affirming care blocked

In a narrow ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle blocked enforcement of the state's ban on transgender affirming care, calling the rule "an exercise in politics, not in good medicine."

The district judge granted a preliminary injunction against Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, the Florida Board of Medicine, the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine and other state leaders, and will allow the parents who challenged the state to access medical care for their transgender children as the ban's constitutionality is debated in court.

July 5, 2022: Florida's 15-week abortion ban temporarily stopped

Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper ruled the state's new ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy unconstitutional the day before it was set to go effect, and released a temporary injunction a few days later to stop it. Cooper said the law was a likely violation of the state constitution’s right to privacy.

The move was immediately appealed by the state and the law went back into effect as the matter advances in court. The Florida Supreme Court has agreed to review the law, but not quickly. Meanwhile, the Florida Legislature passed an even stricter 6-week ban in 2023 on most abortions which will go into effect if the court decides the previous 15-week ban is constitutional.

Nov. 17, 2022: 'Stop WOKE Act's' ban on addressing race- or gender-related issues in universities blocked

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blocked another key provision of the state's 'Stop WOKE Act,' officially called the “Individual Freedom Act” but nicknamed the "Don't Say Gay" bill by critics, calling “positively dystopian” its limits on the discussion of race, gender and other topics in university classrooms.

“In this case, the State of Florida lays the cornerstone of its own Ministry of Truth under the guise of the Individual Freedom Act, declaring which viewpoints shall be orthodox and which shall be verboten in its university classrooms,” Walker wrote in his 139-page ruling. Walker ruled the provision unconstitutional, saying it violated the First and 14th Amendments and the Equal Protection Clause.

In March 2023, a three-judge panel with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the state's request for a stay of Walker's injunction.

What does it mean to be 'woke'? And why does Florida Governor Ron DeSantis want to stop it?

Aug. 18, 2022: 'Stop WOKE Act' ban on discussions in addressing race-related issues in workplace training blocked

Calling part of the law a “naked viewpoint-based regulation on speech,” Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blocked restrictions that Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers placed on addressing race-related issues in workplace training. Walker agreed with three businesses and a consultant that restrictions in the law violate the First Amendment.

Walker had previously rejected a challenge to the law, saying that four of the plaintiffs lacked legal standing.

May 11, 2022: DeSantis' redistricting map blocked

The 2022 election season was in chaos over a restricting map battle. In April, DeSantis vetoed a new GOP-drawn map, calling it unconstitutional and racially gerrymandered. Instead, he offered a new map, which provided more districts likely to elect Republicans to Congress from Florida and reduced four districts represented by Black Democrats down to just two. The plan was so aggressive that the Republican-controlled Legislature fought against it for months before it passed in a special legislative session.

In May, Leon County Judge J. Layne Smith blocked the map from use in the 2022 election, saying, “I do find persuasive the arguments that were made about the diminishment of African-American votes ... to the other districts where they’re now spreading.”

Smith's decision was reversed in an appeals court later that month. The Florida Supreme Court, in a 4-1 divided ruling in which two of the justices recused themselves, declined to hear the case, leaving the appeals court decision in place for the election. Republicans added four seats from Florida, helping the GOP win control of the U.S. House.

The trial is due to come up in August. Both sides are optimistic: DeSantis won a key victory in the beginning of June when a judge ruled that lawmakers can argue in the upcoming trial that the state's Fair District standards violate the U.S. Constitution. The Fair District requirements, approved by voters in 2010, prohibit districts that diminish the ability of minorities to elect representatives of their choice, a policy DeSantis has derided.

Meanwhile, advocates against the new map saw new hope in two recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions: that an Alabama congressional map likely violated the federal Voting Rights Act, and that legislatures did not have unchecked authority to enact federal voting rules and create congressional redistricting maps guided by partisan gerrymandering.

From packing heat to drone delivery: A list of new 2023 Florida laws signed by DeSantis

Sept. 9, 2021: Judge blocks DeSantis' 'anti-riot' law

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker agreed with arguments from civil rights organizations that Florida's "Combating Public Disorder" law, dubbed the "anti-riot" law, and called it a threat to the constitutional rights of Americans. The legislation toughened penalties for crimes that occur during protests that become violent and created new crimes including “mob intimidation,” “inciting a riot” and “defacing, damaging or destroying a monument,” largely aimed at protecting Confederate monuments across Florida.

“Though plaintiffs claim that they and their members fear that it (the law) will be used against them based on the color of their skin or the messages that they express," Walker wrote, "its vagueness permits those in power to weaponize its enforcement against any group who wishes to express any message that the government disapproves of.”

An Atlanta-based appeals court heard arguments last March for the state's appeal but in January deferred th case until the Florida Supreme Court can decide on the definition of "riot."

June 30, 2021: Judge blocks Florida's first-in-the-nation social media law

After former president Donald Trump was suspended from Twitter and other social media platforms in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection, DeSantis demanded a new law, and got it. The Stop Social Media Censorship Act (SB 7072) cracked down on social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook by requiring them to disclose specific, detailed standards for censorship or blocks and fining them as much as $250,000 a day for de-platforming a Florida candidate.

After opponents representing the tech industry sued, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle declared the new law undermined constitutional free speech protections, said it was "viewpoint-driven" without a compelling state interest, and issued an injunction against it.

“I won’t put you on the spot and ask you if you’ve ever dealt with a statute that was more poorly drafted,” Hinkle asked the state's lawyers during the initial hearing.

The Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit partially agreed with the injunction in May 2022, leaving the moderation disclosure as valid but otherwise leaving the injunction in place. "Put simply, with minor exceptions, the government can't tell a private person or entity what to say or how to say it," said Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom.

In October, the state petitioned the Supreme Court to reinstate the law. The defendants filed their own review, asking to have the lone restriction approved by the appeals court struck down. Instead of granting or denying either petition, SCOTUS asked the Biden administration for its views on this law and a similar one in Texas. According to the SCOTUSBlog, if the court does decide to hear the case a decision would not be likely until 2024.

Contributors: Ana Goñi-Lessan, Tallahassee Democrat, John Kennedy, USA TODAY NETWORK FLORIDA Capital Bureau

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' laws keep getting blocked. A partial list.