Apparently, Florida’s Department of Children and Families employs no one who understands the First Amendment. That’s the only logical explanation for the letter it sent to the Orlando Sentinel, telling the paper to cease and desist reporting on the shady charity spearheaded by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ wife, Casey.
The paper hasn’t published the story yet, but FDCF nonetheless accuses it of threatening foster families to make negative statements about the beleaguered Hope Florida Foundation.
This is an obvious case of prior restraint, which is where the government attempts to censor speech before it is published. It’s arguably the worst way the government can violate the First Amendment. The Supreme Court addressed this nearly 100 years ago in Near v. Minnesota, which invalidated a Minnesota law that allowed a judge to block any publication deemed obscene or scandalous, stating that it violated the First Amendment.
You don’t need to be a legal scholar to have learned about this fundamental constitutional protection. You have to be only moderately aware of American history. Then-President Richard Nixon famously tried to block publication of the Pentagon Papers, saying the publication of the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam would jeopardize national security. The Supreme Court did not agree and ruled that The New York Times and other papers could publish the material.
DeSantis’ administration is scrambling to cover up Casey DeSantis’ involvement with the charity, particularly because the scandal might compromise her gubernatorial ambitions. Ron is term-limited, so there’s a genius plan to just have Casey take his place. If this sounds familiar, it’s because rabid segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace got around that state’s term limits by having his wife run for governor in 1966. Her election allowed Wallace to serve as a shadow governor.
The DeSantis family’s apparent plan to emulate Wallace has taken a hit, though, because of the investigation into the Hope Florida Foundation. This is sort of a mess, so buckle up.
First, the state established a charity known as the Hope Florida Foundation to receive private donations, which it would then distribute to churches and nonprofits. Casey made it her signature initiative, but it was remarkably bad at its core function of distributing money. In its first year, it gave away less than 5% of the donations it received. It also reportedly failed to perform required audits and to file taxes on time—until reporters came calling.
In September 2024, the DeSantis administration settled with a large health care company that had overbilled the state’s Medicaid program, requiring the company to pay Florida $67 million. The administration then diverted $10 million of that settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation despite the fact that it was money designed to make Florida citizens whole. The Hope Florida Foundation suddenly got good at giving away money, swiftly passing it on to DeSantis-affiliated PACs set up to block Florida’s ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. Those PACs then turned around and sent millions to Florida’s state Republican Party.
This didn’t come to light because some left-wing rag was attacking Casey DeSantis. Instead, state Republican lawmakers kicked things off, and now prosecutors are investigating the charity as well.
This is small-fry corruption compared with the vast lawlessness of the Trump administration, but Ron has always been a bargain-basement Trump, so it makes sense he’d try to follow in those criminal footsteps. Republicans are fully committed to using the government to grift.
It isn’t just that Ron and Casey DeSantis are seemingly taking taxpayer dollars away from Florida citizens to support their own pet projects. Their actions show they don’t think Florida citizens deserve to know where their money goes, and they don’t deserve to read publications critical of DeSantis. That’s a profound and deep disdain for the people Ron DeSantis professes to serve.
Campaign Action Lisa Needham June 10, 2025 at 11:00PM From Daily Kos
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