A U.S. Appeals Court has sided withย former Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren and agreed to expedite his lawsuit against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.)
Last year, Gov. DeSantis notified Warren of his immediate suspension, accusing the liberal prosecutor of exercising โpresumptive non-enforcement.โ Warren publicly refused to enforce the state's abortion restrictions or enforce laws cracking down on child sex changes. (RELATED: Ousted State Attorney Sues DeSantis in Federal Court)
On Thursday, Judge Jill Pryor, an Obama appointee on the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, ordered an accelerated review of Warren's lawsuit, whichย argues the governor acted illegallyย and โcanceled the votes of hundreds of thousands of Floridians,โ according to Fox News.ย
โThe public needs resolution at the earliest possible opportunity of whether the Governor illegally removed the duly elected chief prosecutor in the State's third most populous city and who lawfully occupies that critical office,โ Warren's attorneys said in court documents filed on Feb. 14.
โThe dispute turns on important constitutional issues concerning the First Amendment limits on the Governor's authority to remove other Florida elected officials, and whether the Governor may use that authority as a tool to silence viewpoints and ideas he opposes. Until this case is resolved, the degree of protection to be afforded core political speech by the State's elected representatives remains in doubt,โ they said.
Florida Solicitor General Henry Charles Whitaker issued a responding motionย telling the appeals court that Warren's pronouncements โinvite lawlessness and reflect Mr. Warren's fundamental misunderstanding of his role as a Florida prosecutor.โย
โBecause Mr. Warren supports abortion rights, he announced that he would not prosecute abortion crimes. Because Mr. Warren disagrees with criminalizing transgender-related medical procedures, he proclaimed that he would not enforce any such laws. And because Mr. Warren believes that he โ not the legislature โ decides whether conduct should be criminal, he instructed his office not to prosecute many lower-level offenses and offenses stemming from bicycle shops unless they satisfied an extraneous element of his choosing โ the presence of a public safety threat,โ Whitaker wrote.ย
The case will be heard in the first week of May in Montgomery, Alabama.ย
At the time of Warren's suspension, numerous Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office officials praised the suspension- and impending removal of Warren. (RELATED: Ron DeSantis Suspends Liberal State Attorney)
โI do think that some of these prosecutors that have very militant agenda in terms of ideology have been able to get away with a lot in other statesโฆ We've had prosecutors around this country that think they can pick and choose which laws to enforce,โ Gov. DeSantis said when announcing Warren's suspension.
โAndrew Warren is a fraud,โ said Hillsboroughย Policeย Chief Chad Chronsiter.
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4 Comments
Rigged to take him down like Trump
Well, the conniving Demmunists jump right in with both feet if they think anybody denied some Leftist loon their First Amendment rights, but don’t seem to care about anybody else’s! They are just looking for an excuse to stop DeSantis running for President–the same kind of petty CRAP they constantly pulled–and are STILL pulling–on Pres. Trump.
A progressive screwball judge, an appointee of Balack Obama…well, it just figures.
Warren is a Toad while DeSantis is a Prince. This is part of the ongoing battle in the world between Good (DeSantis) and Evil (Democrats and their demons, e.g. Soros).