Florida Supreme Court officially strikes Amendment 3, 7 and 9 from ballot

September 7, 2010

TALLAHASSEE, Florida: It's official, Florida voters will see only six statewide measures on this year's 2010 ballot. On August 31 the state's high court upheld previous lower court decisions to throw out Florida Property Tax Limit, Amendment 3, Florida Redistricting, Amendment 7 and Florida Healthcare Freedom, Amendment 9. All were legislatively referred constitutional amendment. All three were struck down by a 5-2 vote, with Chief Justice Charles Canaday and Justice Ricky Polston dissenting.

Specifically, the high court ruled that the proposed Amendment 3 was misleading because the ballot language did not clarify to voters that the tax break applied only to property bought after January 1, 2010. On Amendment 7, the court ruled that the measure was also misleading because it did not highlight to voters the effect on the state's district requirements and because it would undermine the state's current requirement that districts be "contiguous." The supreme court ruled similarly on Amendment 9. "The ballot language put forth … contains misleading and ambiguous language. Currently our only recourse is to strike the proposed constitutional amendment from the ballot," said the justices.

In addition to last week's ruling, the high court dismissed challenges to two citizen proposed redistricting initiatives - Amendment 5 and Amendment 6.

See also

• Florida 2010 ballot measures
• Florida Property Tax Limit, Amendment 3 (2010)
• Florida Redistricting, Amendment 7 (2010)
• Florida Healthcare Freedom, Amendment 9 (2010)