Republican Governor Ron DeSantis announced Thursday the suspension of rogue Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, who pledged not to enforce a number of state laws including a 15-week abortion ban and prohibitions on sex changes for minors.
“Today we are suspending state attorney Andrew Warren effective immediately,” DeSantis declared.
Warren was one of 83 prosecutors nationwide who in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade signed a letter promising not to prosecute those who perform, abet, or seek abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
“This 15-week ban is an unconstitutional law. The Legislature is hoping courts ignore the Florida constitution. But I’m upholding the law and protecting the fundamental rights of all Floridians,” Warren said in a statement provided to the Tampa Bay Times.
“We are not going to allow this pathogen of ignoring the law get a foothold here in the state of Florida. We are going to make sure our laws are enforced and that no individual prosecutor puts themselves above the law,” the governor said. “To take the position that you have veto power over the laws of this state is untenable.”
The DeSantis administration has argued that the governor has the authority to suspend a state officer under Article IV, Section 7 of the Florida Constitution, according to a press release. Susan Lopez has been appointed as interim State Attorney during the period of the suspension.
By that provision, the governor can suspend from office a 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.” At any time before removal, the governor may reinstate the suspended officer.
The Florida Senate then must sit in judgment of the merits of a suspension. After hearing the case, for which there is a special process, the Senate may remove from office or reinstate the suspended official.
DeSantis was defiant about the decision, noting that of some of the other problematic prosecutors in the state, “Warren was the only one signing letters basically saying ‘to hell with the people of Florida.” Warren was the only signee of the “Joint Statement from Elected Prosecutors” from Florida. He has touted himself as a criminal-justice reformer seeking to end “tough-on-crime” policies.
As for Warren’s vow to flout child gender-transition restrictions, the governor pointed out the absurdity of allowing children to undergo surgeries and hormone treatments that will permanently alter their bodies when those children can’t legally get tattooed.
“A 12 year old boy can’t go in and get a tattoo but we have laws that say you can get a sex change operation,” he said.
“They use euphemisms, but they’re literally chopping off the private parts of young kids and that’s wrong,” he said.
While he “doesn’t agree with every Florida law on the book and sometimes vetoes legislation,” DeSantis affirmed that “that’s just the way the system works.”
“If the law conflicts with your idiosyncratic vision of social justice,” that doesn’t mean you have veto power over the law, he asserted.
The suspension came after DeSantis’s office conducted a survey of how certain laws are being received by district attorneys in Florida. Warren’s actions, he determined, are “beyond exercising discretion when you make an individual case and decide it shouldn’t be prosecuted.”
“Where it goes across the line is when it’s being used to effectively nullify what the legislature has done,” he said.