TALLAHASSEE — Saying the restrictions don’t implicate speech, a sharply divided appeals-court panel has put on hold a judge’s ruling that blocked parts of a law prohibiting non-Florida residents and non-U.S. citizens from collecting signatures for ballot proposals.

Republican legislators included the restrictions, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis , in a sweeping election law passed this spring after proposed constitutional amendments seeking to allow recreational marijuana and guarantee abortion rights narrowly failed to pass in November.

Florida Decides Healthcare, a political committee sponsoring a ballot measure aimed at expanding Medicaid coverage, filed a federal lawsuit in May, in part alleging the restrictions against non-citizens and non-Florida residents violate constitutionally pr

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