More than 100 legal scholars and dozens of former judges, prosecutors and police chiefs are decrying Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, arguing that the move runs counter to professional standards, sets a dangerous precedent and violates the constitutional separation of powers.
The scholars on Tuesday submitted a friend-of-the-court brief in a federal lawsuit in which Warren accuses DeSantis of overstepping his authority and violating the twice-elected prosecutor’s First Amendment rights.
DeSantis on Aug. 4 issued an executive order suspending Warren, a Democrat, accusing him of “incompetence and willful defiance of his duties.” DeSantis pointed to a letter Warren signed pledging to avoid enforcing a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. Also, the governor targeted a statement Warren joined condemning the criminalization of transgender people and gender-affirming care.
But 115 legal scholars from across the country who focus on ethics and the law denounced DeSantis’ action, saying Warren’s suspension “runs counter to professional standards of conduct, usurps the will and power of the electorate and eviscerates the carefully crafted separation of powers erected in the Florida Constitution.”
The group’s brief argued that prosecutors have discretion over how to spend their offices’ resources.
“Elected prosecutors’ public statements on controversial questions of criminal law or procedure are not unethical or unprofessional but fulfill their professional obligation to promote law reform while enabling constituents to assess their views on policy relevant to their work,” the brief said.
Warren’s suspension “for what can only be characterized as purely partisan reasons runs counter to professional standards of conduct, usurps the will and power of the electorate and eviscerates the carefully crafted separation of powers erected in the Florida Constitution,” the scholars wrote,
DeSantis, who is running for re-election this year and is widely seen as a frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, has used his authority to suspend a number of elected officials since he became governor in early 2019.
On Friday, DeSantis suspended four Broward County school board members based on the recommendation of a grand-jury report. In one of his first actions after taking office, DeSantis suspended former Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel for actions related to a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and a shooting at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
DeSantis, appearing at an event in Live Oak on Tuesday, defended his decision to suspend Warren.
“In Florida, we actually said we are going to follow the law across the board, state and local. We had a prosecutor over in Tampa that had said he wasn’t going to enforce laws that he doesn’t like. So, we removed him from his post, and we said that’s not going to happen here,” DeSantis said.
The Florida Constitution grants the governor the authority to suspend state officers for “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony.” State attorneys are considered state officers.
The Florida Senate has the power to remove or reinstate suspended officials. Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, has put the proceedings in Warren’s case on hold while the lawsuit is pending.
In addition to abortion and transgender treatment, Warren has clashed with DeSantis on other fronts. For example, Warren criticized the way the state has carried out a constitutional amendment aimed at restoring voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.
Warren, in an interview Wednesday with The News Service of Florida, accused the governor of using the suspension to score political points.
“I’ve spent my career as a prosecutor and in courtrooms and so I still live in a world where facts matter. I know that the governor is now campaigning for president and so he lives in a political world where apparently, in his view, facts don’t really matter,” Warren said. “The reality is that nobody should want elected officials to have the power to remove other elected officials, just because they don’t like the job that they’re doing or they don’t like who the people are. … This is just, from top to bottom, it’s truly undemocratic and un-American and illegal, and that’s why it’s being challenged in court.”
In a separate brief filed Friday, dozens of former judges and law-enforcement officials, including three retired Florida Supreme Court justices, warned that allowing Warren’s suspension to stand would undermine the justice system.
The case “presents issues of national importance,” said the brief. Officials joining the brief included former Florida Justices Harry Lee Anstead, Barbara Pariente and Peggy Quince.
“Governors do not have the authority to disregard the autonomy and independence of prosecutors, nor are they entitled to undermine the will of the voters by removing a prosecutor simply because he exercises the discretion vested in him to make charging decisions or expresses his views regarding appropriate priorities of the justice system,” the brief said. “Allowing governors to do so would upset the careful balance of roles and responsibilities delegated to local as well as state actors by state constitution, delegitimize our justice system and erode public confidence in the operation of government and the integrity of the election process.”
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle has scheduled a Sept. 19 hearing on Warren’s request to block DeSantis’ order. Warren was first elected in the 13th Judicial Circuit in 2016 and was re-elected in 2020. The circuit includes only Hillsborough County.
–Dara Kam, News Service of Florida
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Bethechange says
Ron. Keepin Florida Free. For who? The 1st Amendment cuts both ways.
Dennis C Rathsam says
You forgot the most important thing…..The so called experts are all democrats! FREE FLORIDA!!!!! De Santis is my governor
James says
The want to be dictator thinks he can do whatever he wants. This is what happens when the wrong people get elected to office and him in office is totally wrong.
He puts his personal opinions and feelings into how he runs the State of Florida. Just think of the damage he will do if he won the presidency. Just as much as his idol has done.
Jim says
Warren stated he wouldn’t prosecute people for violating abortion laws. He hasn’t actually failed to prosecute anyone. At this point, he hasn’t done anything that could be considered malfeasance, etc. Yet DeSantis suspended him. Interestingly enough, several Florida sheriffs have publicly stated they will not enforce select gun laws. I haven’t heard of any sheriff being suspended for making a statement of that nature. So I have to ask why suspend for an abortion comment but not for a gun law comment? My conclusion is that in Florida, if you take a position in opposition to DeSantis he will do anything and everything he can to attack you (not necessarily following any laws or statutes) but if you take a position that DeSantis supports, you can say or do most anything. DeSantis likes to say in Florida “we have our freedoms”. Florida comes closer to a dictatorship than any state I’ve ever lived in. His autocratic behavior is unacceptable and I sincerely hope enough Florida residents recognize that supporting people like DeSantis will lead to a total loss of our democracy. We need to vote this guy out in November. He’s not for Florida, he’s for himself.
Ray W. says
Perhaps it is an appropriate time to repeat a previously posted story about a controversial populist Republican governor, Claude Kirk. My father, Dan Warren (no known relation to Andrew Warren), was the elected State Attorney for the 7th Judicial Circuit during the early years of Kirk’s tenure.
When I graduated from law school, I wanted to make my mistakes as a rookie lawyer in another jurisdiction before I returned to my home circuit, so I applied for and was hired to prosecute in the 12th Judicial Circuit (DeSoto, Manatee and Sarasota counties), under the direction of Frank Schaub.
Very early in my employment in 1986, one of the most senior prosecutors called me into his smoke-filled office. In his grizzled voice, he advised that he needed to tell me a story about my father that I really needed to hear.
He told me of a time (1967) when my father was appointed by Governor Kirk to investigate a criminal complaint that had been filed against a hated political opponent, Sarasota County’s sheriff. Schaub’s office had already investigated the complaint and determined that no criminal action was appropriate, but that wasn’t good enough for Governor Kirk. My father came over with an investigator to handle the investigation of the allegation.
The deputy assistant prosecutor told me he was in the room with my father when my father called Governor Kirk with news that the now-concluded investigation would not result in prosecution of Sarasota’s constitutionally elected official. The prosecutor told me that he could hear only my father’s side of the conversation.
According to the senior prosecutor, after my father conveyed the news to the governor, there was a long pause while the governor talked to my father. Then, the governor was told that my father was calling a press conference in 30 minutes. My father stated that either he would tell the press that he had investigated the allegation and determined that no charges would be filed, and that when told of that decision, Governor Kirk had removed my father from office or, he would tell the press that he had investigated the allegations and determined that no charges would be filed. Either way, he said, no charges would be filed. According to the senior prosecutor, my father then added: “By the way, governor, f**k you.”
I then called my father to tell him of the story. He confirmed that it was all true, except the last comment. Frankly, to this day, I don’t know why the senior prosecutor would tell that last part if it never happened, so I don’t know it my father actually told off Governor Kirk in that fashion, but I do have childhood memories of my family going without pay for months, because Governor Kirk had issued an executive order cutting off all pay to my father. The legislature met and passed a bill ordering that my father be paid. As a child, I remember my father showing us all what I thought was a huge amount on a check, though I was not told at that time why my father hadn’t been paid for so long.
When a Republican senator later approached the governor in the mansion’s basement after hours possessing another bill raising state attorney salaries to match judicial salaries, knowing that the governor would be good and drunk by that time, he presented the bill, which the governor took into hand and tore it into pieces, saying that if the senator thought the governor was going to sign the bill for that son-of-bitch brother-in-law of his (the senator was not my father’s brother-in-law, but he was married to my father’s cousin), then he had another thing coming. Years later, at his mountainside retirement home, with my two young son’s playing outside, the Republican senator told me that story, with a big smile on his face (I come from a family of storytellers).
Faced with the prospect of future interruptions in pay and not knowing whether Kirk would be reelected in 1970 (he wasn’t), my father resigned his elected position shortly after getting that paycheck and went into private practice with his old friend, a previous elected State Attorney, Billy Judge. My father was elected to fill out his term and then reelected. Florida then significantly revamped its constitution in 1972, placing additional limits of the exercise of powers, in respect of the concept of separation of powers.
As I have commented before, vindictive Republican governors are nothing new in Florida. To paraphrase an old comment, perhaps it is just in Tallahassee’s reservoir that is used for drinking water. Or perhaps not. After all, the vindictiveness only seems to strike Republican governors.
Dennis C. Rathsam has every right to wander through life fooling himself. Does Dennis C. Rathsam actually believe that a coopted Republican legislature would actually challenge Governor DeSantis out of respect for the separation of powers or is he just another gullible commenter amidst a long list of gullible commenters during an election season? It is about political power and whether it is to be abused or respected. Some government officials respect their limited powers. Others grab as much power as they can, abuse it as long as they can, and openly dare everyone to try to take it away from them, in this case under the declared guise of freedom. Oy vey!
Bethechange says
Exactly the point; your governor. Regardless of political party affiliation, Jim’s point is articulated well. Saying you’re not going to do something is vastly different from actually not doing something. Examples are too exhaustive to list. To invoke that level of authority is preemptive, at the very least. Additionally, warren was put in office by the electorate through the democratic process. True patriots understand that our republic is only as strong as our adherence to the principal of representation of all, for all and by all. It is truly disheartening that so many Americans feel disenfranchised. But the last thing any of us need to be doing now is putting our selves, our freedoms, our belief systems above those of others. He’s supposed to be the governor of all Floridians.
Heathen lady says
Oh, please. DeSantis is a racist dictator. He struts around like he won in a landslide (he didn’t, he barely squeaked in). He’s arrogant, controlling and has no discernible ethics. And “freedom”? Surely you jest! Ask Florida teachers, students, LBGT community, and women how “free” they feel under Ron DeSantis.
Laurel says
Jim: DeSantis went after Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Huey, Dewy and Louie for sticking up for kids who are a little different from him. God help his kids if…oh, just vote for Crist.
Wallingford says
DeSantis’ running of the State of Florida is becoming an International Embarrassment. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination is condemning the Governor’s anti-riot legislation since it restricts free speech. If he gets his way, all of our hard-fought freedoms will be taken away. Free speech, if it agrees with him, is okay but, if you disagree like Disney he brings the weight of his Office down upon them and costs the Citizens Billions of Dollars. 67% of the Voters approved a proposition that Felons can vote. He didn’t like the outcome so him and his cronies in the legislature passed a law negating the valid vote since he thought that the Felons would not vote for him. If he stays any longer our way of life from our Schools to our Churches to our everyday decisions will monitored and overseen by him. He doesn’t want to stay here; in 2024 he wants to change his address.
Come on Man says
Does not matter democrat or republican it’s dereliction of Duty Point Blank. Who do you think you are deciding that you are not going to uphold the law. Don’t do what the boss says at work and it’s an easy grounds for temination. DeSantis pointed to a letter Warren signed pledging to avoid enforcing a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. After 4 months god help you.