The Florida Supreme Court handed down rulings Monday on abortion and marijuana ballot initiatives, while also upholding the state's 15-week abortion ban, and House Speaker Mike Johnson says a Ukraine funding bill is in the works.
Florida Supreme Court approves language of proposed amendments
The Florida Supreme Court has approved the wording of two proposed amendments to the state constitution that will appear on the ballot in November.
These amendments, if approved, would allow abortions until 24 weeks into pregnancy, and allow recreational use of marijuana for people 21 and older in Florida.
Both of these issues will appear on the 2024 ballot in November as currently worded.
Each will need 60% percent support from voters to become law.
Amendment 4 would allow Floridians to vote on the state’s abortion law.
The state currently bans abortion at 15 weeks, and a 6-week ban that was approved by the Florida Legislature last year is under separate legal review.
If the amendment is adopted, both bans would be eliminated. The amendment would protect abortion access up to viability — roughly 24 weeks.
Amendment 3 would allow voters to decide on the legalization of recreational marijuana.
Both amendments received enough voter signatures to be put on the 2024 ballot.
“Getting the amendment on the ballot and getting it passed, of course, are very crucial to getting it to the constitution and affecting policy change," University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewett said. "But it’s not the final step, because usually the Legislature will have to pass implementing legislation."
Florida's high court upholds 15-week abortion ban
The Florida Supreme Court on Monday upheld the state's ban on most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, which means a subsequently passed six-week ban will soon take effect.
The court — which has been reshaped by former presidential candidate and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointment of five of the seven justices — ruled that the 15-week ban signed by the governor in 2022 can take effect. The ban has been enforced while it was being challenged in court.
A six-week ban passed in the 2023 legislative session was written so that it would take effect a month after the 2022 law was upheld.
Most abortions are obtained before the 15-week mark, so the current ban does not affect most people seeking abortion. But a six-week ban would likely have a major impact on women seeking abortions in Florida and throughout the South.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, most Republican-controlled states have adopted bans or restrictions on abortions. Every ban has faced a court challenge.
A survey of abortion providers conducted for the Society of Family Planning, which advocates for abortion access, found that Florida had the second-largest surge in the total number of abortions provided since Roe v. Wade was overturned. The state’s data shows that more than 7,700 women from other states received abortions in Florida in 2023.
Johnson says Ukraine funding bill is in the works
House Speaker Mike Johnson said in an interview this weekend that he expects to put a bill on the floor next week that would provide new military aid to Ukraine.
The Senate passed a $95.3 billion bill for foreign aid in February, including $60 billion to support Ukraine in its war against Russia. But Johnson has not put the measure up for a vote in the House, where some Republicans firmly oppose additional Ukraine assistance.
In an interview with Fox News’ Trey Gowdy on Sunday, Johnson said he plans to introduce legislation to help Ukraine after House members return from their district work period on April 9.
The speaker said the bill will have “some important innovations.”
It would redirect seized assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs to Ukraine, a move Johnson said would be “just pure poetry.”
Bipartisan bills were introduced in the House and Senate last June that would do just that, but both have been languishing.
Johnson also said aid to Ukraine might come as a loan, an idea suggested in February by former President Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee this year.
“NO MONEY IN THE FORM OF FOREIGN AID SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ANY COUNTRY UNLESS IT IS DONE AS A LOAN, NOT JUST A GIVEAWAY,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “IT CAN BE LOANED ON EXTRAORDINARILY GOOD TERMS, LIKE NO INTEREST AND AN UNLIMITED LIFE, BUT A LOAN NEVERTHELESS.”
Some of Trump's other congressional allies, like South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, have championed the idea.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan in February panned the loan suggestion.
“That economic assistance is in the form of grants, because asking Ukraine to take on and shoulder a substantial amount of debt right now, as it’s fighting for its life, we don’t regard that as the best way forward,” he said.
Johnson did not say if the legislation would also include funding for other national security initiatives, including Israel and Taiwan, which President Joe Biden has been requesting since October.
Ukraine has been an especially thorny issue for Johnson within his party because there is no consensus.
To date, the U.S. has committed about $72 billion to provide humanitarian assistance and help Ukraine in the war, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for months has threatened to seek Johnson’s ouster if he gave Ukraine aid a floor vote. But, upset about a government spending package, Greene introduced her motion to remove Johnson last month, even before the speaker acted on Ukraine.
Johnson told Gowdy that he and “all of my other Republican colleagues recognize this is a distraction from our mission,” which he defined as growing the GOP’s majority in the House so Republicans “can save the republic.” Currently, the GOP can only lose one of its own votes to pass any legislation Democrats are unified in opposition against.
Johnson said that because Republicans hold such a slim majority in the House and Democrats control the White House and Senate, they must settle for the “incremental wins that are still possible right now.”
“I can’t throw a Hail Mary pass on every single play,” he said. “It’s 3 yards and a cloud of dust, right? We’ve got to get the next first down, keep moving — and we’ll do that. And we can show the American people what we’re for.”