Florida Attorney Governor Ron DeSantis suspended from his duties for his positions on abortion and transgender rights, he sued to get his job back saying the Republican official violated his First Amendment rights.
DeSantis’ argument was that he suspended Hillsborough County State’s Attorney Andrew Warren this month for signing a national pledge not to prosecute women and doctors for violating state laws on abortion or families seeking treatment for transgender minors.
“If the governor is allowed to do this, what is left of democracy? If the governor is allowed to retaliate against me for speaking out, what’s left of the First Amendment?” Warren asked at a news conference in Tallahassee.
The lawsuit alleges that DeSantis failed to identify any conduct involving criminal activity that warranted suspension. He says the governor is punishing Warren for expressing positions that DeSantis opposes.
Criticized by Democrats for signing abortion restrictions and bills seen as anti-LGBTQ, DeSantis held a campaign-like event to announce Warren’s suspension, where supporters applauded the decision. The governor’s office did not comment on Wednesday or Thursday on the suspended prosecutor’s lawsuit.
In an executive order, DeSantis cited Warren’s policy of not prosecuting some lesser categories of crimes, including “trespassing a place of business, disorderly conduct, disorderly intoxication and prostitution.”
The suspension was backed by several law enforcement officials, including Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, who said Warren had been acting as a kind of “supreme authority” in deciding “what crimes will be legal or illegal in our county.”
Warren, who was elected in 2016 by Tampa-area voters and re-elected in 2020, said the governor overrules the will of the people who put him in office.
“The governor has attacked our democracy and that should concern everyone,” Warren told reporters. “If his attempt to unilaterally nullify an election is allowed to stand, he threatens to undermine the integrity and outcome of elections across our state for years to come.”
Warren’s lawsuit also argues the suspension was retaliation after he opposed the governor on a number of issues, including DeSantis’s efforts to deny restoration of felons’ voting rights and create new offenses for public protests. in response to movement Black Lives Matteras well as new restrictions on abortion.
“Of course, DeSantis is free to express his views and disagreements with Warren as often as he wants. In fact, the federal Constitution ensures that it is,” the lawsuit says. “[Pero] DeSantis went too far.”
The lawsuit says Warren has an obligation to voters to say where she stands on such issues and that, as a prosecutor, she has the right to decide how the limited resources she has to prosecute crimes should be used. That priority should be public safety, he said.
“The First Amendment protects the right of elected officials to speak on matters of public controversy and, in fact, it does so because it is very important that the voters who elect these elected officials know where they stand on these issues,” he said. Warren’s attorney, in a telephone interview with the AP agency.
Warren’s suspension is now an issue in the gubernatorial race as Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the only Democrat elected statewide, and Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist enter the final week of the primary to see who will challenge DeSantis.
“For this governor to weaponize his office and remove a state attorney, a state attorney who has prosecutorial discretion over which cases to bring and which not, this is overreach, and overreach by this governor,” Fried said at an event. campaign on Tuesday night. “It is the most dangerous thing we have seen for our democracy.”
