A federal appeals court panel on Wednesday gave new hope to a Florida state prosecutor’s attempt at reinstatement after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) suspended him for his crime policies and positions on abortion and transgender youth.
In August 2022, DeSantis suspended Andrew Warren, an elected Democrat, citing statements Warren signed committing to not enforce bans on abortion and gender-affirming care for minors.
DeSantis, now a presidential candidate, has long railed against progressive prosecutors, and Warren had become an outspoken voice for criminal justice reform in Florida.
Warren challenged his suspension in court as a violation of his First Amendment rights, but a federal judge tossed Warren’s lawsuit by finding he would’ve been suspended for unprotected activities, anyways.
A three-judge panel on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday sent the case back, ordering the judge to reweigh his ruling because some of the activities were, in fact, protected.
“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,” Circuit Judge Jill Pryor, who was appointed by former President Obama, wrote for the court.
“We therefore remand for the district court to reconsider whether DeSantis would have made the same decision based solely on Warren’s performance and the two office policies,” the opinion continued.
The decision from the 11th Circuit panel, which comprised two Republican appointees and one Democratic appointee, breathes new life into Warren’s fight at reinstatement two days after he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.
“A state prosecutor’s declared commitment to not enforce the laws of this state is not protected by the U.S. Constitution. The federal appeals court is flat wrong to have concluded otherwise,” DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern said in a statement.
“It’s disappointing that a federal appellate court would excuse such a blatant violation of that prosecutor’s oath to defend Florida law,” he added.
Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom, an appointee of former President Trump, wrote a separate opinion stressing that Warren’s support of the abortion statement was protected “whatever one thinks” of his opinion.
“The First Amendment is an inconvenient thing. It protects expression that some find wrongheaded, or offensive, or even ridiculous,” Newsom wrote.
“But 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. What’s good for mine is (whether I like it or not) good for thine.”
The Hill has reached out to Warren’s attorney for comment.