A Tallahassee judge has struck down the $5,000 fine that Florida mayors and city council members face if they try to enact municipal gun-control rules, ruling the unique penalty goes too far in stamping out defiance of state checks against local regulations.

Judge Charles Dodson also declared unconstitutional a provision of the 2011 law that allows Florida’s governor to remove local officials for going too far on the gun-control front.

Dodson did endorse the heart of the law, which bars local ordinances that go beyond firearm regulations established by the Florida Legislature. The Leon County Circuit Court judge’s ruling simply strikes the unprecedented threat of civil fines and expulsion for passing local laws that Florida has already declared “preempted” by state authority.

Dodson’s Friday ruling in the case of Weston vs. DeSantis is probably just the start of the legal fight, with the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis expected to appeal the decision up the ladder of the state judicial system. But for now, the fine that helped define Florida as one of the most hostile states in the country to gun-control legislation is no longer a threat for local governments. The lead attorney in the case said that would give cities more latitude to experiment with gun laws that don’t run afoul of state rules.