Dignity

Kenneth Donaldson spent 15 years confined at Florida State Hospital. He had been committed by his parents—even though he had never posed a danger to himself or others. Over the years, Donaldson pleaded for release: he filed petitions, wrote to doctors, and appealed to government officials. His requests were ignored.

Inside the overcrowded, unsanitary hospital, he received no meaningful treatment. Instead, he endured neglect and abuse.

“I still remember all my friends there who died from abuse,” Donaldson said in 1975. “Can you imagine being in the state of Florida and not being allowed in the sunshine for two years?”

With the help of ACLU attorney Bruce Ennis, Donaldson took his case to the Supreme Court. The justices ruled that people diagnosed with mental illness who pose no threat to themselves or others cannot be locked away without treatment. The Court ordered Donaldson’s release and awarded him damages.

In response to the ruling, Ennis declared: “Mental hospitals as we have known them can no longer exist in this country as the dumping grounds for the old, the poor, and the friendless.”

This landmark victory affirmed a powerful principle: dignity means freedom and self-determination. Donaldson’s courage established a precedent that continues to protect the rights and autonomy of people with mental health disabilities across the nation.

After a heart attack left Terri Schiavo with severe brain damage and in a persistent vegetative state, her husband, Michael Schiavo, testified that she had told him she would not want to be kept alive by artificial means. For 13 years, he fought to have her feeding tube removed so that her wishes could be honored.

Florida courts repeatedly ruled in his favor, granting him custody of her care and authorizing the removal of the feeding tube. But fierce opposition from Terri’s parents—amplified by political intervention—threatened to create a precedent for government intrusion into the most personal of medical decisions.

The ACLU of Florida challenged a state law that forced the reinsertion of Terri’s feeding tube and opposed legislative attempts to override settled court judgments. Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene, allowing the lower court rulings to stand and effectively ending the case.

On the day of the decision, Howard Simon, then executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said, "Terri Schiavo's wishes were honored today. If the court had ruled otherwise, the nation may have taken a giant step backward in the protection of privacy and made it harder for families to make these difficult but intensely personal end-of-life decisions without the intrusion of politicians."

The fight became a pivotal moment in affirming that dignity includes the right to medical autonomy, the right to privacy, and the right for families—not politicians—to make deeply personal end-of-life decisions.

In 2024, Floridians mobilized behind Amendment 4, a ballot initiative to end government interference with abortion and Florida’s extreme abortion ban. More than a million people signed petitions, and the Florida Supreme Court confirmed the measure would appear on the November ballot.

But once Amendment 4 qualified, the state unleashed an unprecedented campaign to undermine it. Officials politicized the ballot process, rewrote financial impact statements to mislead voters, and even sent election police to the homes of petition signers—creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation. State agencies poured taxpayer dollars into misinformation campaigns and broadcasting ads designed to distort and mislead.

The crackdown reached a chilling new level when the Department of Health threatened broadcasters airing a campaign ad featuring Caroline, a Tampa woman who shared her story of being denied an abortion despite a terminal medical condition.

A federal court swiftly intervened, blocking the state’s censorship attempt and declaring: “To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid.”

Despite relentless state interference, 57% of Floridians voted “Yes” to Amendment 4. While the total fell short of the state’s extraordinary 60% threshold to amend the constitution, the campaign became a defining moment—exposing the lengths to which politicians will go to strip away reproductive freedom, and affirming the dignity of Floridians demanding the right to make their own medical decisions.

“The majority has spoken,” said Bacardi Jackson, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. “Floridians want reproductive freedom, and they deserve leaders who will honor that. We will not stop until this harmful law is overturned and reproductive justice becomes a reality for everyone in this state.”