DeSantis will not reinstate Andrew Warren after court decision: ‘neglect of duty and incompetence’

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include statements from Ron DeSantis’ office and Andrew Warren on the judge’s decision.

TAMPA (FLV) – A judge upheld Gov. Ron DeSantis’ suspension of former State Attorney Andrew Warren, saying the case is not under his jurisdiction.

Judge Robert Hinkle of the Northern District of Florida said DeSantis did violate Warren’s First Amendment rights, but that it was “not essential” to the outcome.

“The Governor violated the First Amendment by considering Mr. Warren’s speech on matters of public concern,” Hinkle wrote.

The judge said DeSantis also violated Warren’s rights by considering his “alleged association with Mr. [George] Soros.”

“The Governor violated the First Amendment by considering Mr. Warren’s association with the Democratic Party and alleged association with Mr. Soros as motivating factors in the decision,” he said.

Hinkle said the suspension violated the Florida Constitution.

Even though the state constitution does give DeSantis grounds to suspend Warren for reasons like “neglect of duty” and “incompetence,” Hinkle pointed to “policy differences” as DeSantis’ rationale.

“A governor cannot properly suspend a state attorney based on policy differences,” he wrote.

“He never said he would not prosecute a case that absolutely deserved to be prosecuted. Quite the contrary. He said repeatedly that discretion would be exercised at every stage of every case,” Hinkle said.

Despite the judge’s agreement with Warren that his First Amendment rights were violated, the judge cited the Eleventh Amendment as reason he cannot intervene in DeSantis’ actions.

“The Eleventh Amendment prohibits a federal court from awarding relief of the kind at issue against a state official based only on a violation of state law,” he said.

In response to the ruling, Warren’s legal team said the governor “abused his power” when he fired Warren.

“Today, the court found what we’ve known all along: Ron Desantis violated the U.S. and Florida constitutions and abused his power when he fired Andrew Warren because of what Warren said and what he stood for – which represented the will of his constituents. Prosecutors cannot be removed from office for prioritizing and protecting the rights of the communities they serve. Voters twice elected Warren to use his prosecutorial discretion in representing them,” Warren’s legal team said.

Jan. 25, Warren sent a letter to DeSantis asking him to rescind the suspension.

“The judge’s ruling is crystal clear: the governor’s accusations against me were totally false and the suspension was illegal. I think if you ask anyone who believes in the rule of law, they’ll tell you what the governor should do is obvious,” Warren said in a statement.

“When the governor and I were sworn in, we both put our hands on the Bible and swore to uphold the laws of Florida and the United States. Now a federal judge has ruled that I did my part, and that the governor broke his oath. This is the opportunity for the governor to do the right thing and show that his oath to uphold the law wasn’t just empty words.”

Bryan Griffin, press secretary for DeSantis, responded, saying Warren “should understand the distinction between legal dicta and the holding of a court’s decision.”

“The failures that motivated the suspension were Mr. Warren’s actual performance—not advocacy—as a reform prosecutor. Mr. Warren signed a statement refusing to prosecute the laws of the land. Thus, the governor removed Mr. Warren for neglect of duty and incompetence. Public prosecutors cannot pick and choose which laws to enforce,” he said.

“In its lengthy opinion, the Court attempted to usurp the Florida Senate’s constitutional authority to make a determination on Mr. Warren’s neglect of duty and incompetence. It is the Florida Senate that is to rightly serve as the ultimate factfinder in this case,” Griffin said.

“We do not agree with the Court’s dicta, which are merely opinions, and need not address them since the Court ultimately determined it lacked jurisdiction and thus ruled in favor of the governor. Mr. Warren remains suspended from the office he failed to serve.”

Warren was suspended by the governor in early August 2022 for failing to prosecute certain crimes and vowing not to enforce certain abortion laws or potential laws related to sex change operations.

“State Attorneys have a duty to prosecute crimes as defined in Florida law, not to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on his personal agenda,” DeSantis said. “Andrew Warren has put himself publicly above the law.”

DeSantis slammed Warren for exercising “a veto” over Florida law.

Warren has implemented policies of “presumptive non-enforcement,” which DeSantis said is not consistent with the role of a prosecutor.

“Yes, you can exercise discretion in an individual case, but that discretion has to be individualized and case specific. You can’t just say that you’re not going to do a certain offenses,” he said.

The governor called Warren’s record “troubling” and pointed to a letters he signed promising not to enforce laws related to abortions and saying he would not enforce potential bans on sex change operations for minors.

Warren responded by calling the move a “political stunt.”

“Today’s political stunt is an illegal overreach that continues a dangerous pattern by Ron DeSantis of using his office to further his own political ambition. It spits in the face of the voters of Hillsborough County who have twice elected me to serve *them*, not Ron DeSantis,” Warren said.

Christina Pushaw, DeSantis’ press secretary, slammed Warren and other prosecutors for being “backed by Soros” and refusing to “enforce laws across the country.”

“But [DeSantis] won’t stand for this. He just suspended one in Florida.”

When the Tampa Bay Times asked Warren if George Soros helped fund his campaign, Warren replied, “We think so.”

“We understand that he gave money to the state (Democratic) party. And the state party money … went to support different candidates. And I have very little insight into the amount of money he gave, who it went to, etc.”

The governor appointed Susan Lopez to serve as State Attorney for the period of suspension. She has most recently been serving as a Judge on the Hillsborough County Court.

Not long after the suspension, Warren began his legal battle to try to get reinstated.

“The governor’s action in claiming, clearly suspending Andrew from his elected office because of what he said, because of what he thinks, because the long-standing firmly held views on things like criminal justice reform, and on other topics like abortion and the rights of transgender Americans,” Warren’s attorney said.