Judge blocks Florida financial disclosure law [Video]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge has blocked a 2023 Florida law that required municipal elected officials to disclose detailed information about their personal finances, ruling that the law likely violated First Amendment rights.

U.S. District Judge Melissa Damian on Monday issued a preliminary injunction, siding with municipal officials throughout the state who challenged the law. The decision came three weeks before a July 1 deadline for filing the information.

Damian, who is based in Fort Lauderdale, wrote that the Legislature did not adequately justify a need for the law after decades of the state requiring less-detailed financial disclosures by municipal officials. She wrote that a law “compelling speech, as with a statute forbidding speech, falls within the purview of the First Amendment.”

“After a thorough …