{"id":2301,"date":"2025-05-03T16:04:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T20:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/?post_type=work&#038;p=2301"},"modified":"2025-09-15T15:58:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T19:58:43","slug":"protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process","status":"publish","type":"work","link":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting Florida&#8217;s Citizen-Led Amendment Process"},"template":"","class_list":["post-2301","work","type-work","status-publish","hentry","work_type-legislation"],"acf":{"details":{"summary":"Floridians have a constitutional right to directly pass policies that improve our lives and strengthen our communities.","featured_image":29782,"work_type":173,"related_issues":[404,86,92,402],"location":12},"sidebar":{"helper_enable_sidebar":false,"helper_media_contact":{"heading":"Media Contact","manually_enter_person":false,"person":"","name":"","role":"","phone":"","email":""},"helper_links_downloads":{"heading":"Links & Downloads","links":null}},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 1968, Floridians have had the constitutional right under <a href=\"http:\/\/www.leg.state.fl.us\/Statutes\/index.cfm?Mode=Constitution&amp;Submenu=3&amp;Tab=statutes&amp;CFID=157943039&amp;CFTOKEN=1d8518f59e43eb3d-ED018914-D1CE-2A6C-27ACA1B2AE070619#A11S05\">Article XI, Section 5<\/a>\u00a0to directly amend our state constitution through citizen-led petition initiatives. <\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These citizen-led amendments have produced major reforms in our state, including: <\/span>\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Florida Government Sunshine Laws (1976)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Homestead Valuation Limit (1992)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everglades Trust Fund (1996)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Universal Pre-K (2002)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raising Florida\u2019s Minimum Wage (2004 and 2020)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fair Districts (2010)\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Water and Land Conservation (2024)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Medical Marijuana Legalization (2016)<\/span><\/li>\r\n \t<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Florida Voting Rights Restoration for Felons (2018)<\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Florida's citizen-led amendment process is one of the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot, Supreme Court review of ballot language, inclusion of a Fiscal Impact Statement produced by the state, and obtaining 60% support from voters to pass.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Our right to citizen-led amendments was put in place to serve as a check on the power of the legislature, and it enables us to directly pass policies when our elected leaders ignore the will of the people. That's why, over the past 20 years, the legislature has added more and more red tape, fees, penalties, and other restrictions to make the process harder and harder for the people -- and further entrench power in their own hands and the hands of corporate elites. <\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But every time they make the process harder, Floridians fight back, finding ways to leap over the barriers and demand that our voices be heard.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_add_component","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_add_component":null},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_banner","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_banner":{"use_donate_banner":true,"title":"Title [highlight]with highlighting[\/highlight] and additional text.","button":null,"image":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_related_articles","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_related_articles":{"heading":"Updates","button_text":"See all Related Articles","manually_curate":false,"articles":["{\"site_id\":\"45\",\"post_type\":\"article\",\"post_id\":279}"]}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_resources","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_resources":{"heading":"Related Resources","button_text":"See all Related Resources","manually_curate":false,"resource":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_press","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_press":{"heading":"Press","button_text":"","manually_curate":false,"press":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_events","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_events":{"heading":"Events"}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_our_experts","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_our_experts":{"heading":"","manually_curate":false,"people":null}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v27.1.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Protecting Florida&#039;s Citizen-Led Amendment Process - Common Cause Florida<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Protecting Florida&#039;s Citizen-Led Amendment Process\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Common Cause Florida\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T19:58:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/common-cause-share-image.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/\",\"name\":\"Protecting Florida's Citizen-Led Amendment Process - Common Cause Florida\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-05-03T20:04:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T19:58:43+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Protecting Florida&#8217;s Citizen-Led Amendment Process\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/\",\"name\":\"Common Cause Florida\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Protecting Florida's Citizen-Led Amendment Process - Common Cause Florida","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Protecting Florida's Citizen-Led Amendment Process","og_url":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/","og_site_name":"Common Cause Florida","article_modified_time":"2025-09-15T19:58:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/common-cause-share-image.png","type":"image\/png"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/","url":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/","name":"Protecting Florida's Citizen-Led Amendment Process - Common Cause Florida","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-05-03T20:04:29+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-15T19:58:43+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/work\/protecting-floridas-citizen-led-amendment-process\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Protecting Florida&#8217;s Citizen-Led Amendment Process"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/","name":"Common Cause Florida","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Common Cause Florida","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/work\/2301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/work"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/work"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/work\/2301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2556,"href":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/work\/2301\/revisions\/2556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.commoncause.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}