The Florida Department of Health is barred from prosecuting local television stations for airing an ad for abortion rights.

A federal judge sided with the stations after the surgeon general threatened to bring criminal charges against the broadcasters.

And the judge did not mince his words.

“To put it simply for the State of Florida, it’s the First Amendment, dumbass,” Chief Judge Mark E. Walker of the Northern District of Florida wrote Thursday as he issued a restraining order against the surgeon general.

The case stems from a 30-second ad from the group Floridians Protecting Freedom, the group behind Amendment 4.

The ad features a brain cancer survivor named Caroline.

“If I didn’t end my pregnancy, I would lose my baby, I would lose my life and my daughter would lose her mother,” she said in the ad.

The state health department said the ad’s claims are “false” and “dangerous” to public health.

Stations across the state aired the ad, and the Department of Health’s general counsel responded by sending cease-and-desist letters.

Floridians Protecting Freedom subsequently filed a lawsuit asking the court to stop the state from following through on threats to sue.

The judge ruled that the threats from the Ministry of Health constituted ‘facial discrimination’.

He said there is “a significant likelihood that there will be an ongoing violation of First Amendment rights through the threat of direct punishment of his political speech.”

The judge’s order is valid until October 29, a week before Election Day.

This ruling stops Florida’s surgeon general from going after local stations for airing the Amendment 4 ad.