Ron DeSantis ousts elected Democratic prosecutor Andrew Warren in shocking abuse of executive constitutional power
August 4, 2022
Governor Ron DeSantis made headlines again with today's radical move to suspend state attorney Andrew Warren of Florida's 13th judicial circuit (Tampa area), a Democrat, and replace him with county judge Susan Lopez, a member of the right-wing Federalist Society.
This is a harbinger of descent into autocracy.
DeSantis stated in his 10-page Executive Order # 22-176 that this action is for neglect of duty and incompetence on the basis of Warren vowing not to prosecute doctors and women for abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, and to not prosecute acts of gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. The executive order includes 2 attachments of statements from an organization named Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) that were jointly signed by Warren and scores of other prosecutors across the United States with respect to abortion and transgender care.
Regarding criminalization of gender-affirming healthcare, DeSantis quotes the FJP joint statement and writes: "WHEREAS, although the Florida Legislature has not enacted such criminal laws [emphasis added], these statements prove that Warren thinks he has authority to defy the Florida Legislature and nullify in his jurisdiction criminal laws with which he disagrees." This is remarkable. By the governor's own admission, he is entertaining hypothetical laws that do not yet exist in Florida as part of his case for suspending Mr. Warren.
DeSantis goes on to criticize Warren's alleged policies of not prosecuting prostitution and misdemeanor crimes frequently committed by people suffering from homelessness, such as police encounters arising from trespassing, bicycling, or being a pedestrian. Then, DeSantis segues into a discussion of protecting women and unborn humans from abortion and Warren's duty to bring felony indictments against abortion providers, without citing any specific instances in which he has failed to do so. As the new 15-week abortion law only took effect on July 1, 2022, there is currently no one to prosecute.
DeSantis's executive order attempts to buttress his case by noting that the FJP statement speaks against abortion bans in general terms, "including late-term and partial-birth abortions," despite the fact that the FJP statement does not specifically discuss these types of abortions, and makes the leap that Warren affixing his signature to the joint statement represents an endorsement of violating existing Florida laws against 3rd-trimester abortions that preexisted the new 15-week ban. Remarkably, DeSantis relies fully on the FJP joint statements to make his case, without any examination of Warren's personal statements or internal communications. For a Yale-educated former Navy JAG officer, this is surprisingly shallow.
The executive order concludes with the immediate appointment of Lopez, termination of Warren's duties and salary, and states that he should only be allowed back in his office to retrieve his personal belongings under the supervision of the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.
The order claims that "it is in the best interests of the residents of the 13th Judicial Circuit that they immediately have a new state attorney who will faithfully execute Florida's criminal laws and exercise prosecutorial discretion to do justice on a case-by-case, fact-specific basis in accordance with Florida law." But, in Florida, prosecutors are elected by the public, and Warren was elected in 2016 by 287,545 voters, receiving 50.4% of the vote, and he was re-elected in 2020 by 364,953 voters, increasing his margin to 53.3% of the vote. In fact, he defeated his Republican opponent by 45,306 votes, which is well above the number of votes DeSantis won by in 2018 for governor in a much larger, statewide race.
The idea that the residents of Hillsborough County erred in electing and re-electing Warren and need the governor to override their choice is ridiculous. It is antithetical to democracy.
Florida's constitution is surprisingly broad in the power it affords the governor to suspend elected officials from office. At the end of today's Notes section I have included several obscure papers from the 1970s and 1980s that shed more light on this, as well as the text of the relevant section of the state constitution. DeSantis' new use of this power is shocking because it is typically reserved for extreme cases of corruption, rather than being wielded as an authoritarian political cudgel.
In fact, Florida's executive constitutional suspension power is so broad that it could be wielded to plunge Florida into autocracy.
We have already seen that the Republican-controlled Florida legislature is completely controlled by DeSantis; in fact, they even allowed him to draw greedy, extremely gerrymandered congressional districts that disenfranchise minority voters and may tip the balance of power in the United States House of Representatives to the Republicans in 2023. It is little consolation to Mr. Warren that the Republican-controlled Florida Senate will now decide whether he should be removed from office, and they do not convene again until January 2023 which gives Susan Lopez plenty of time to usurp his elected office.
Autocracy does not usually happen overnight. It requires normalization, testing the waters, and growing numbness from the populace in light of a prolonged period of increasingly grievous transgressions being dismissed on the basis of comparison to recent memories, rather than a farsighted analysis.
DeSantis is setting himself up to be a dictator in his 2nd term as governor, should he succeed in being reelected on November 8, 2022. Moreover, his presidential ambitions are well documented, and it should be expected that he will continue these trends at a nationwide scale should he succeed.
It does not take a constitutional law professor to recognize that the suspension power's inclusion of state attorneys is quite dangerous as it permits the governor, with the help of the Florida Senate, to remove prosecutors at will. This could be used to shut down politically unfavorable prosecutions as well as commence politically motivated prosecutions. It would not be surprising if the new state attorney, Susan Lopez, is going to be helpful to a DeSantis mega-donor, or some other corrupt scheme not presently known to the public and unlikely to be uncovered in time for the election.
In fact, the suspension power could even be used to prosecute political opponents who can then be more easily removed from office if indicted for a crime, including municipal officers who must be "indicted for crime" (unlike other state officers), such as Democratic mayors of cities such as Miami, Orlando, and Daytona Beach. You would not need any change to the Florida Constitution to do this, but rather a rogue governor, complicit Senate, and a propaganda campaign to gin up public support.
Chillingly, DeSantis can also use this section of the Constitution to remove and replace circuit judges. Tomorrow, he could allege that a litany of judges are being "soft on crime" and promulgate an executive order suspending them from office for "neglect of duty" and installing his hand-picked replacements. The Senate would then vote to remove the judges, as they are a rubber stamp for DeSantis.
When a political party extensively gerrymanders the boundaries of the legislative districts of a state, as has been achieved by Republicans in Florida, the opposing party can't take the legislature back without overwhelming support to overcome the gerrymandering. Statewide races can still be competitive, though. The Florida Democratic Party has no real shot of taking back the Florida Senate (nor the Florida House) in 2022, but they do have a good shot at taking back the governor's mansion—and you would not have to worry about a Democratic governor going on an autocratic rampage, as their power would most extensively lie in vetoes, including line-item vetoes, and other executive actions, being severely encumbered by Republican control of the courts and legislature. On the other hand, re-electing Ron DeSantis is a frightening proposition that could unleash tyranny, the likes of which we have not seen in the past century.
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Notes:
DeSantis' statement includes a link to a PDF of his executive order suspending Warren, discussed in today's letter:
Fair and Just Prosection has released this statement on DeSantis' action. Also included below are links to the 2 joint statements DeSantis wielded against Mr. Warren:
Two news articles on the suspension of Warren:
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article264193996.html
Warren's brief rebuttal:
This 1978 academic article by Algia Cooper, "The Proposed Revision to the Executive Suspension Powers of the Governor," shows that the power DeSantis is now exercising was conceived quite broadly, and in fact proponents even wanted it to be extended to municipal officeholders. Legal precedent urges the judicial branch to be deferential to the governor, knowing that the Florida Senate will act as a check on a rogue executive. Of course, the entire legislature is now a rubber stamp for DeSantis.
https://ir.law.fsu.edu/lr/vol6/iss3/10/
A 1983 advisory opinion from the Florida attorney general argues the gubernatorial suspension power extends to municipal officeholders if felony charges are filed against them, or if misdemeanor charges are filed against them in connection with official duties:
http://www.myfloridalegal.com/ago.nsf/Opinions/9FFD21D0CCC5CE2E85256584006618A6
A 1985 advisory opinion from the Florida attorney general argues that "state officers" includes circuit judges, public defenders, and state attorneys. Although this opinion was on the topic of when they should be sworn in to office after being elected, it suggests the governor of Florida can remove judges, too, which is quite scary:
http://www.myfloridalegal.com/ago.nsf/Opinions/B5865370E53C860C85256576005480D3
Article 4, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution gives the governor broad powers to remove state officials from office and appoint interim replacements:
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?submenu=3#A4S07
[Article 4, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution]
SECTION 7. Suspensions; filling office during suspensions.—
(a) By executive order stating the grounds and filed with the custodian of state records, the governor may suspend from office any state officer not subject to impeachment, any officer of the militia not in the active service of the United States, or any 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. The suspended officer may at any time before removal be reinstated by the governor.
(b) The senate may, in proceedings prescribed by law, remove from office or reinstate the suspended official and for such purpose the senate may be convened in special session by its president or by a majority of its membership.
(c) By order of the governor any elected municipal officer indicted for crime may be suspended from office until acquitted and the office filled by appointment for the period of suspension, not to extend beyond the term, unless these powers are vested elsewhere by law or the municipal charter.
Dictator DeadSantis has really turned up his Tyranny Oven To High with his recent termination of the twice dully elected State Atty because he refused to suck Dictator Run Ron Out's kiester. The SA did not commit any crimes nor did he violate his oath of office, he rightfully refused to kiss the Dictator's ring and private parts. Be Calm When The Unthinkable Happens..... DeadSantis Will soon Top This Hitler's Hamburg Party (former GOP) act of fascism ..... Watch For The Uniform it's coming soon !
Move to our paradise CA where schools teach children to change their gender without telling parents. Political parties are not worth fighting for.