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For the second time in two days, a federal judge has said no, at least temporarily, to the Governor and Florida Legislature.

The latest injunction stops a new limit on contributions to petition gathering efforts.

The ACLU argued restricting contributions to petition gathering campaigns would be the end of Citizens initiatives because they could never afford to get on the ballot.

In a 17-page ruling, a Federal judge stopped the law from going forward until a final court decision.

“This is a vindication of all Floridians rights to pool their resources, band together, and amend their state constitution,” said ACLU attorney Nathan Warren.

Citing a US Supreme Court decision, Judge Alan Windsor wrote that contributions are ‘political expression’.

“You’re really looking at creating a constitution for sale,” said State Senator Dennis Baxley.

Baxley, who’s committee co-sponsored the $3,000-per-person contribution is clear in its desired effect: Making initiatives harder.

“If you’ve got the money and you can figure out the right wording, you can put it on the ballot, then you can just put it directly into the constitution. And the constitution is the defining document of the relationship between the people and their government,” said Baxley.

Since state lawmakers went home on April 30th, a dozen initiates have been filed for 2022.

Many of them have been trying to raise as much cash as possible before the limits would have kicked in.

Warren expects the case to be finalized quickly.

“This is long standing precedent. This is long standing case law here,” said Warren.

Legislation that would have raised the approval threshold from 60 percent to two thirds for a constitutional amendment failed this year.

After this ruling, it’s likely to be back again next session.

State lawmakers have been making it harder to get an amendment on the ballot ever since the 2006 election when the threshold for passage was raised from 50 to 60 percent.

Ironically, it passed with less than the 60 percent threshold it created.