Judge: DeSantis violated state Constitution, First Amendment in firing state attorney

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Miami Herald

Warren ruling

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Despite concluding that Gov. Ron DeSantis violated the Florida Constitution and the First Amendment when he suspended Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren last year, a federal judge ruled Friday that he didn’t have the power to restore Warren to office.

U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle found that DeSantis suspended Warren based on the allegation that the state attorney had blanket policies not to prosecute certain kinds of cases.

”The allegation was false,” Hinkle wrote in a ruling issued Friday morning. “Mr. Warren’s well-established policy, followed in every case by every prosecutor in the office, was to exercise prosecutorial discretion at every stage of every case. Any reasonable investigation would have confirmed this.”

Yet Hinkle concluded that the U.S. Constitution prohibits a federal court from awarding the kind of relief Warren seeks, namely to be restored to office.

Warren and his attorneys are expected to comment on the ruling later Friday. Susan Lopez, who was appointed by DeSantis to replace Warren, was reviewing the ruling Friday morning and will comment later, said her chief of staff Gary Weisman. Prosecutors and other employees of the state attorney’s office have been advised of the judge’s decision, he said.