DeSantis makes a bold move…
…and fires a state prosecutor who pledged to defy the law.
What a novel idea – that state prosecutors cannot overrule the legislature and act as the judiciary, thus rolling all three branches of government into the executive branch!
This is what happened:
Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday the suspension of rogue Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who pledged not to enforce a number of state laws including a 15-week abortion ban and prohibitions on sex changes for minors.
“Today we are suspending state attorney Andrew Warren effective immediately,” DeSantis declared.
Warren was one of 83 prosecutors nationwide who in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade signed a letter promising not to prosecute those who perform, abet, or seek abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
“This 15-week ban is an unconstitutional law. The Legislature is hoping courts ignore the Florida constitution. But I’m upholding the law and protecting the fundamental rights of all Floridians,” Warren said in a statement provided to the Tampa Bay Times.
The DeSantis administration has argued that the governor has the authority to suspend a state officer under Article IV, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution, according to a press release. Susan Lopez has been appointed as interim State Attorney during the period of the suspension.
By that provision, the governor can suspend from office a county officer for “malfeasance, misfeasance, neglect of duty, drunkenness, incompetence, permanent inability to perform official duties, or commission of a felony, and may fill the office by appointment for the period of suspension.” At any time before removal, the governor may reinstate the suspended officer…
“If the law conflicts with your idiosyncratic vision of social justice,” that doesn’t mean you have veto power over the law, he asserted.
The suspension came after DeSantis’s office conducted a survey of how certain laws are being received by district attorneys in Florida. Warren’s actions, he determined, are “beyond exercising discretion when you make an individual case and decide it shouldn’t be prosecuted.”
“Where it goes across the line is when it’s being used to effectively nullify what the legislature has done,” he said.
He’s absolutely correct. The proper action for Warren himself, by the way, ought to have been to resign, if his conscience troublee him about enforcing laws with which he disagreed, and then to campaign for the repeal of those laws.
My guess is that Warren didn’t think that DeSantis would have the cojones to do such a thing. Or that, if he did, the blowback against DeSantis would be fierce. I am virtually certain the left will excoriate DeSantis for this, but they do that every day that ends with a “y.”
I also wonder whether any other governor will follow suit.
ADDENDUM: In line with whether any other governor will follow suit, I’ll add that, as far as suspending state prosecutors goes, I think DeSantis was in a fairly unique position. He’s a conservative governor in a reddish state, and the prosecutor was a state prosecutor refusing to prosecute duly passed laws. Most of these progressive prosecutors are in blue states with Democrat governors, and in counties and not the whole state. So there’s no real conflict there, and until DeSantis and this prosecutor in Florida there wasn’t really a situation where a suspension like this could happen.
The only exception I can think of offhand is in Texas, with this:
Travis County District Attorney José Garza on Monday denounced the U.S. Supreme Court’s move to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision and reiterated his promise that his office will not prosecute people under the Texas law that will make it illegal to perform abortions.
The latest opposition to the ruling by an Austin public official comes days after City Council members pledged to vote on a resolution that calls on Austin police to make abortion investigations their lowest-priority cases.
Garza is one of several district attorneys across Texas to make the same promise, including John Creuzot in Dallas, Joe Gonzales in Bexar County, Brian Middleton in Fort Bend County and Mark Gonzalez in Nueces County.
However, legal experts said moves at the local level aren’t likely to give clinics enough reassurance to reopen their doors and begin performing abortions again. Officials at the state level could still enforce civil penalties against abortion providers and revoke licenses.
So I’m not sure whether Abbott could suspend Garza or the others, since they function at a country and not a state level. Perhaps he could, but I don’t know whether he’d bother to do so, because it may not matter much since the state can take over if it wishes, as described in that last sentence of the quote above.
A bit off topic, but still Florida. I just got my copy of the the local Yulee News. Front page is an article on school safety (school starts next week). It reviews procedures that have been in place since 2018: 1) Every school has a trained psychologist. 2) There’s a threat assessment team that meets every month to discuss possible troubled students. And those students will be monitored and their parents informed. 3) two layers of fencing around each school. 4) hard policy of all doors locked during hours. 5) The school district has its own dedicated police department.
And most impressive to me, a picture of a sign that is on every school that reads: “ATTENTION Armed Safety Personnel on Campus”
Nice to be in Florida.
DeSantis is certainly to be commended for this excellent decision. Meanwhile, the WSJ gave Dr. Evil himself a platform a few days ago to defend his indefensible policy of spending tens of millions of Soros-bucks to subvert law and order, while the editorial board of the egregiously dreadful LATimes fulminated, just yesterday, about the “destructive and distracting recall mania” directed against Soros-funded Gascon. One small victory is very welcome indeed, but the war against the “woke” destruction of our legal system has barely begun and may, unfortunately, not be winnable.
A good way to get rid of Soros DA’s who use their seat to rule who gets charged and who gets away all by political side they are on.
Rule and law are in the books, not what they decide to do.
j e on August 4, 2022 at 3:15 pm: “One small victory is very welcome indeed, but the war against the “woke” destruction of our legal system has barely begun and may, unfortunately, not be winnable.”
I concur with your optimism (“the war against the ‘woke’ destruction . . . has . . . begun”) and your realistic view (it “may . . . not be winnable”). To paraphrase the great Sarah Palin: “I sounds like 1773.”
Scott Walker, Gov-WI, caused similar consternation by enforcing a similarly common-sense policy: he revoked the requirement that gov’t workers join a union. Turned out that bunches of them were perfectly happy to avoid joining.
Where has the GOP been all these years?!?!
The pessimist in me worries that the suspension may not stick. Would a court case start near the bottom level and work its way up?
JimNorCal:
As far as suspending state prosecutors goes, I think DeSantis was in a fairly unique position. He’s a conservative governor in a reddish state, and the prosecutor was a state prosecutor refusing to prosecute duly passed laws. Most of these progressive prosecutors are in blue states with Democrat governors, and in counties and not the whole state. So until DeSantis there wasn’t really a situation where a suspension like this could happen. The only exception I can think of offhand is in Texas, with this, about Austin, Texas and several other Texas counties:
So I’m not sure whether Abbott could suspend them, since it’s at a country and not a state level. Plus, I don’t know whether he’d bother to do so, because it may not matter much.
I’m inclined to think that this fall’s election will be decisively in favor of Republicans, provided they don’t get too shrill on abortion issues. I wonder if stalwart Republican governors in ‘reddish’ states are going to be the next battle line in the culture wars, effectively going to war with state-appointed officials in blue cities (like this DA) in order to start pulling the teeth of this toxic culture. Hard to say what the net effect might be. I doubt that it would motivate many ‘blue’ voters to vote harder, but I could see it motivating ‘red’ voters substantially – especially if they live in ‘blue’ cities.
physicsguy:
Little known fact is that Uvalde had numbers 4 and 5 in place. However, the “all doors locked policy” (which included even all classroom doors) was routinely not followed by everyone. There’s that human element. And the dedicated police department didn’t do very well, as we know. For all I know there even were threat assessment teams meeting every month to discuss possible troubled students. But the perp had dropped out of school a year before the shooting, plus COVID lockdowns had been going on prior to that. So I doubt the school had any awareness of his decline, which occurred during that period.
However, there was only one layer of fencing and it was low enough that it was pretty easy for a young perp to scale. Also, as far as I know, there was no sign about an armed guard.
I do still plan to write more about Uvalde. Other events keep intervening, though.
Neo, the suspended prosecutor in Florida was also a county-level prosecutor (Hillsborough County). In every state, state prosecutors are elected and have jurisdiction at the county level. However, they are still officers of the state. To be clear, De Santis suspended this prosecutor, he did not remove him from office yet.
there’s always some stupid judge, judge walker, who get the law and everything else wrong,
Similar case here in Texas- 5 Democrat DAs in big cities vow not to cooperate with Gov Abbott’s plan to prosecute people who mutilate children with “gender-affirming” surgery.
I don’t know how far along Abbott’s plan is, or if he has the authority under TX law to do what Desantis did in Florida, but this would be a good way for Abbott to get back in the good graces of conservatives who have considered him squishy. Also BTW a legitimate use of state power to protect children from mutilation.
How about it, gov?
https://tinyurl.com/2p3d7cjy
Recall (pun intended) that [prosecutorial] ethics, a many selective, opportunistic, relativistic religion, precedes integrity.
All’s fair in lust and abortion.
Very clever legal move. The Governor can’t fire the elected county prosecutor, but he can suspend him.
That’s because every criminal case caption is, “State of Florida.”
This is a genius move.
}}} My guess is that Warren didn’t think that DeSantis would have the cojones to do such a thing.
And if he thought that, then he’s not even a liberal moron, he’s a complete moron.
There is nothing whatsoever in DeSantis’ history that suggests he would hesitate to do such a thing.
Face it, DeSantis is the “non-Trump” front-runner for 2024 because all indications are that he’s Trump without the blowhard and braggadocio.
He will probably do better than Trump for the simple reason that he has a lot more experience with government BS and getting around it than Trump did as a businessman… but as the chief executive of the third largest state, has plenty of executive experience, as well.
}}} This is a genius move.
That’s a DeSantis move… oh. Right. Same thing. 😛
In NY, the governor has the power to remove a county DA. Not that she would do it for this reason.
}}} Where has the GOP been all these years?!?!
Hiding in RINO clothing while wetting their pants/pantsuits?
djf:
Then Abbot could also suspend the ones in various Texas counties, I suppose.
Suspension isn’t that much different than firing for purposes of getting the prosecutos out of the decision-making position for prosecuting cases – unless there’s a time limit on suspensions.
Best Governor since Reagan.
Travis County is a nuthouse with U of T and lots of California immigrants. Ronnie Earle made the county notorious with his war on Republicans.
He became nationally known for filing charges against House majority leader Tom DeLay in September 2005. DeLay was acquitted.
Another Travis County DA indicted Rick Perry, the Governor.
The suit originated from a standoff between Perry and Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg after she was arrested for drunk driving in April 2013 and subsequently pleaded guilty.
She was an angry drunk in the arrest video.
In February 2016, Perry was cleared of all charges.[134]
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that courts could not limit veto power and that prosecuting Perry over his action violates “the separation of powers provision of the Texas Constitution” and infringed on Perry’s First Amendment right to freedom of speech.[128]
**UPDATE** (cherry on top)
…“Update: DeSantis sent state police to physically remove Warren from his office, “with access only to retrieve his personal belongings, and (ii) to ensure that no files, papers, documents, notes, records, computers, or removable storage media are removed from the Office of the State Attorney…”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/desantis-suspends-state-attorney-violating-oath-refusing-enforce-laws
As Lincoln said of Grant, that man fights.
RHINOs are always (?) looking for the right time to fight, and the right battle, but alas, never find either.
Neo, whether Abbott could suspend the prosecutors in Texas depends on whether the governor has that power under Texas law.
The suspension removes the prosecutor from power entirely for however long it lasts, it doesn’t apply to a particular case or group of cases. Again, how long the suspension lasts and how it is resolved depends on the law of the particular state.
ObloodyHell (5:01 pm) proclaimeth:
“DeSantis is the ‘non-Trump’ front-runner for 2024 because all indications are that he’s Trump without the blowhard and braggadocio.”
B – U – L – L – S – E – Y – E ! !
(And without the unforced errors, and without so much about Trump that was cringe-worthy.)
ObloodyHell (5:01 pm) proclaimeth:
“DeSantis is the ‘non-Trump’ front-runner for 2024 because all indications are that he’s Trump without the blowhard and braggadocio.”
B – U – L – L – S – E – Y – E ! !
(And without the unforced errors, and without so much that was, for me, cringe-worthy.)
The pessimist in me worries that the suspension may not stick. Would a court case start near the bottom level and work its way up?
The situation in Florida is kind of unique. The governor’s office has wide latitude to deal with rogue officials by way of suspension, and is on solid legal ground. Rogue mayors and sheriffs have been suspended over the years.
The prosecutor in question has put much of this in writing, so he doesn’t have a lot of plausible deniability.
DeSantis 2024.
Get ready folks; in a few short years if/when DeSantis begins a push for national office (e.g. president), he will be labeled by the MSM and demokrats
as Adolph Hitler II.
Get ready for media types to begin dumpster diving (as they did with Sarah Palin) seeking trash on DeSantis. They will go back 65 years seeking dirt on him, even though he is only about 45 now.
Because his personality is non-abrasive, unlike DT’s , he will present a much greater threat to the demokrat power structure in Washington; and they know it.
If anyone thinks the campaign to dethrone DT was vicious, just wait till DeSantis makes a bid for president.
And let’s hope DT and DeSantis do not face off for the upcoming presidential race.
I’m curious whether Abbott has the power under Texas law to remove a prosecutor. All I know about the process so far is what I learned when we were looking into removing an awful prosecutor in my county several years ago, after she quarreled with the police department in the county’s main city and refused to prosecute any cases brought by its officers. We concluded that the barriers to removing an elected County Attorney (which in this county is the only prosecutor) were basically insurmountable, but that was in part because we lacked majority support on the county Commissioners Court. Nor is there a recall process for County Attorneys under Texas law. Instead, we put up a competing candidate, who won 75/25 in the 2020 election.
Certainly Abbott has not yet tried to remove any of the Soros-style prosecutors in the big blue Texas cities.
DeSantis apparently can suspend a state attorney, then has to get a confirmation from the state senate.
Speaking of “best governor since Reagan,” I’ve noticed that DeSantis is smiling a lot more lately in a way that reminds me a lot of Reagan. Check out some of his most recent appearances, like on Tucker last night – big smile with twinkling eyes, like he’s really enjoying himself. A happy warrior! He used to be more boring to watch, sort of earnest and dull. I wonder if his wife Casey, a former news and television host, has coached him a bit. Or maybe he really is getting happier!
@ Amy > “I wonder if his wife Casey, a former news and television host, has coached him a bit. Or maybe he really is getting happier!”
Last year, he was very concerned because of her health, but she was pronounced cancer free in March this year. I think that would free up his emotions quite a bit.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2021/12/31/the-lefts-ron-desantis-is-missing-conspiracy-just-blew-back-on-them-n499895
https://twitter.com/CaseyDeSantis/status/1484557170540699655
2022-01-21
And another update March 3, linking a video where Governor DeSantis announces the good news about her remission.