Florida Supreme Court lets DeSantis veto voters, oust elected officials | Commentary

Florida Supreme Court lets DeSantis veto voters, oust elected officials | Commentary

Show Caption Hide Caption Ron DeSantis called a 'weak dictator' by state attorney he suspended Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended state attorney Monique Worrell, claiming she has a "political agenda." Worrell called DeSantis a "weak dictator." Anastasiia Riddle, USA TODAY

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday refused to reinstate suspended Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell — an allegedly soft-on-crime prosecutor despised by Florida sheriffs — finding that Gov. Ron DeSantis has virtually unlimited power to remove elected prosecutors as long as he provides only the thinnest veneer of justification.

The court's majority endorsed a provocative view of executive power and of law-and-order politics — one in which cowed prosecutors must always fight for the harshest-possible outcomes no matter the strength of evidence or the broader interests of justice, lest they face suspension by DeSantis. In the court's analysis, the views of the communities subjected to all this are beside the point. Their choices at the ballot box can be vetoed by the governor, and Thursday's decision effectively forecloses the courts as a remedy.

Voters, if they disagree, must simply be protected from themselves: Worrell, the Florida Sheriffs Association wrote in support of DeSantis, "failed the public whom she had a duty to serve" — quite a statement about an elected prosecutor who won office in 2020 with nearly 66 percent of the vote. The sheriff knows what's best for you, even if you disagree.

DeSantis, a Republican, booted Worrell, a Democrat, based on vague accusations that she may not have always pursued sufficiently harsh sentences against criminals. But criminal cases often have complex, disputed underpinnings with evidence that is less than perfect, and state attorneys in any case have an array of priorities beyond harsh sentences they must consider.

DeSantis' official reason for suspending Worrell centered on alleged "neglect of duty" and "incompetence" — justifications Florida's constitution provides a governor for exercising this remarkable power. In his telling, Worrell failed too often to achieve the right results in criminal cases, allegedly letting dangerous people walk free. But in transforming what are in truth policy and political disagreements into substantive allegations of neglect and incompetence, DeSantis has in essence given those words new meaning. Supreme Court Justice Jorge Labarga, one of the court's two justices not appointed by DeSantis, was the sole court member uncomfortable with this flexible view of the constitution.

" ... a state attorney may deem it necessary to drop a firearm charge even though it carries a mandatory prison sentence because trial preparation reveals evidentiary problems that would diminish the likelihood of a guilty verdict from a jury," Labarga wrote.

"For this reason, it is difficult to grasp how Worrell, given the specific challenges and circumstances posed by her diverse circuit in dealing with specific cases, will be able to mount a meaningful defense to allegations of 'incompetence' and 'neglect of duty' — for basically engaging in similar practices, even if with greater frequency, as other state attorneys throughout our state."

To wit: the Orlando Sentinel found in an exhaustive review that some of the outcomes in the cases cited by DeSantis' suspension order were necessitated by errors made by police — including deputies working under Osceola County Sheriff Marcos López, who became a vocal critic of Worrell. Complaints like his helped form the purported basis for DeSantis' suspension order against Worrell. Yet it's hard to prosecute someone for drug trafficking when the baggies of "cocaine" and "fentanyl" police recovered at the scene were later found by the state crime lab to have contained no drugs whatsoever.

But the suspension of Worrell was not concerned about such trivial matters. Last August, in the heat of a shambolic presidential campaign, the governor simply needed a progressive totem to toss into the volcano, and Worrell, a Black, reform-minded prosecutor, fit the bill.

Worrell is the second elected Democratic prosecutor DeSantis has removed from office. Like Worrell, DeSantis targeted Tampa-area State Attorney Andrew Warren in 2022 on even flimsier grounds — shaky enough that multiple conservative federal judges came to believe Warren may have been suspended for little more than exercising his First Amendment rights when signing statements about protecting abortion access and transgender people.

In a concurring opinion in the Warren case, 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Kevin C. Newsom, a Trump appointee, noted that DeSantis had bragged at a presidential primary debate about having removed "radical district attorneys."

" ... for the same reason that the government can't muzzle so-called 'conservative' speech under the guise of preventing on campus 'harassment,' the state can’t exercise its coercive power to censor so-called 'woke' speech with which it disagrees," Newsom wrote. "What’s good for mine is (whether I like it or not) good for thine."

For Worrell, DeSantis' office labored to produce a more substantive case for removal — substantive, at least, on paper. But the Florida Supreme Court's ruling Thursday indicated that even this half-baked effort was more than was necessary. Its deepest analysis was to ask whether the reasons for Worrell's suspension bore "a reasonable relation" to the constitutional justification a governor can use to suspend an elected official, a threshold, the court said, that was a "low bar" to satisfy and one that apparently doesn't involve any search for the truth. Was Worrell guilty of DeSantis' allegations? It doesn't matter: DeSantis need only say he's removing a prosecutor for "negligence" because of "negligent behavior," and the matter is apparently closed.

In a concurrence, Justice Renatha Francis went even further, suggesting the court remove itself from such cases almost entirely because they involve "political questions" rather than legal issues (Worrell can challenge her suspension before the state Senate, a process that Francis argued demonstrates what little role the courts have to play).

In prioritizing the views of sheriffs over prosecutors — to such a degree that it can merit removal from office — DeSantis has created perverted incentives in Florida's criminal justice system. In Jacksonville, for example, the State Attorney's Office is charged with determining whether police shootings are legally justifiable. How can the public have confidence in those decisions, particularly in the controversial edge cases, when the threat of removal hangs over a prosecutor's head should they cross a sensitive sheriff?

Prosecutors and judges face daunting political pressure even without the threat of gubernatorial suspension: Years ago, the Jacksonville Fraternal Order of Police called on local judges to fall in line and begin issuing higher bonds to defendants: "If you are a judge in Duval County and you have a weak stomach when it comes to bonds for dirtbags who attack our officers maybe you should find a new line of work," the FOP's then-president said.

As Labarga's dissenting opinion noted, prosecutors clean up cases all the time as they move toward trial. Sometimes that means modifying the charges against a defendant or dropping them entirely. Sometimes that happens because of flimsy evidence, or a bad cop, or because — in those rare instances — a prosecutor may simply believe a defendant to be innocent. Regardless, those decisions might anger police: Fair enough, who likes to have their work questioned? But cops aren't the ones who take cases to trial. This is a modest check at best on police power, but in Florida it's apparently a bridge too far.

Worrell and Warren are both mounting campaigns to return to office, and at least in theory, DeSantis can't suspend them for the same reasons he provided for their initial suspension. Voters should get a definitive chance to rebuff the governor. But the Florida Supreme Court's expansive view of DeSantis' powers likely gives him enough legal cover to effectively do just that. Because it wasn't what Warren or Worrell did in office that got them removed but who they are, and that's not changing.

Nate Monroe is a metro columnist whose work regularly appears every Thursday and Sunday. Follow him on Twitter @NateMonroeTU.