Andrew Warren. Photo via Warren’s Facebook.
Federal appeals judges on May 2 heard arguments over whether Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wrongly suspended a pro-LGBTQ+ elected state prosecutor last year after he indicated he would not pursue criminal charges against seekers or providers of abortion or gender transition care.
The three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in an appeal filed by Andrew Warren in seeking to regain his job. DeSantis suspended the twice-elected state attorney for Hillsborough County, a Democrat, accusing him of neglect of duty.
DeSantis also advised he suspended Warren over his policies on not charging people with some minor crimes. The governor has used his executive powers to promote an aggressive conservative agenda as he eyes a potential White House bid.
An attorney for Warren argued that DeSantis punished Warren for being a dissenting voice, violating his constitutional right to free speech, and nullifying the election that brought Warren to office.
“Hundreds of thousands of Floridians voted to elect Andrew Warren because they agreed with the beliefs and the viewpoints that he expressed. Governor DeSantis canceled Mr. Warren and every single vote that was cast for him because Mr. Warren’s viewpoints don’t follow the governor’s preferred orthodoxy,” Warren’s attorney David O’Neil argued.
O’Neil said the only proper remedy is to reinstate Warren to office.
The two sides presented diverging interpretations of the governor’s motives as well as a judge’s January ruling dismissing Warren’s lawsuit.
“There was abundant evidence that conduct was driving this decision,” Henry Whitaker, solicitor general for Florida, told the panel.
Two of the judges on the panel questioned Warren’s lawyer whether the reasons cited by DeSantis, and later cited in the judge’s decision dismissing Warren’s lawsuit, were about performance or speech and where is the dividing line between the two.
Judge Kevin Newsom said the abortion statement sounds “pretty close” to blanket non-prosecution agreement.
“Whether or not the abortion commitment is, or is not, a true blue blanket non-prosecution policy, we’re still in conduct land and not in speech land, it seems to me,” Newsom said.
O’Neil responded that the statement was about Warren’s “political viewpoint” and that DeSantis punished Warren because he didn’t like that viewpoint.
Warren issued a statement after the arguments, saying, “from the beginning, we’ve believed that the law is on our side, and we hope that the court sees it this way.”
“I’ve spent my career as a prosecutor, serving my community, state, and country. I believe with every fiber of my being in fighting for our freedoms, our democracy, and the rule of law — and that’s what this fight is about,” Warren said.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle, in January, wrote that federal law prevents him from returning the prosecutor to office.
