Appeal court sides with Warren, expedites state prosecutor’s bid for reinstatement
A federal appeals court has given the state of Florida until next Thursday to challenge its ruling that the DeSantis administration violated Andrew Warren’s rights when he suspended him as the twice-elected state attorney for Hillsborough County.
“Ron DeSantis must file any petition for [an appellate] panel rehearing or rehearing en banc on or before January 24, 2024,” a brief order signed Thursday by Judge Jill Pryor of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reads. An en banc hearing is before the full court.
In a pleading filed on Wednesday, attorneys in Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office urged the court not to expedite the case. Attorneys for Warren earlier had asked the court to act with dispatch to allow Warren to run for his office this year if possible.
Warren registered to run but dropped out lest Gov. DeSantis merely suspend him again — and again frustrate the will of the voters. However, a final judgment repudiating the suspension would appear likely to prevent that from happening.
DeSantis suspended Warren in August 2022 on grounds of alleged “neglect of duty” and “incompetence,” chiefly because Warren signed public statements criticizing efforts to criminalize abortion and suppress transgender rights. DeSantis argued those statements indicated an unwillingness to enforce duly enacted laws.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled that Warren was blameless on that count and that DeSantis had set out to target a progressive prosecutor to inflate his reputation as a law-and-order presidential candidate. Hinkle also concluded, however, that he was powerless to reinstate Warren.
A three-judge Eleventh Circuit panel led by Pryor rejected that conclusion in a ruling handed down on Jan. 10 and told Hinkle to take a second look. But that can’t happen until the appeals are settled.
“We conclude that the district court erred in two ways: first, in concluding that the First Amendment did not protect Warren’s support of a sentence in the advocacy statement about prosecuting abortion cases, and second, in concluding that the First Amendment did not preclude DeSantis from suspending Warren to gain political benefit from bringing down a reform prosecutor,” Pryor wrote at the time.
Lawyers for the state have signaled that they are willing to see an en banc hearing, before the full Eleventh Circuit, or go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case’s outcome also could undo DeSantis’ suspension last August of a second progressive prosecutor, Monque Worrell of Orange and Osceola counties. Worrell has challenged her suspension before the Florida Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in December but hasn’t ruled yet.
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