Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has suspended a state prosecutor who promised not to prosecute individuals over the state’s newly enacted 15-week abortion ban.
On Thursday, Andrew Warren, the 13th Judicial Circuit Attorney State of Florida, was suspended by DeSantis. Shortly after, the Florida governor made a statement in Tampa, which is near the attorney’s area of jurisdiction.
DeSantis accused Warren of “neglect of duty”and being incapable of performing his job. Florida law stipulates that state prosecutors cannot be fired by a governor without following certain conditions.
DeSantis’s executive orderWarren, along with other U.S. prosecutors, had signed a pledge not enforce abortion bans if it was overturned by the Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade The procedure was prohibited or restricted by laws in the states. Warren was also predicted to refuse to enforce a ban against gender-affirming care if such a ban is passed by the Florida legislature.
The suspension is effective immediately. Warren will keep his title, but the state law requires that the Florida Senate take action to remove him from office. In the meantime, Warren’s duties will be fulfilled by Hillsborough County Judge Susan Lopez, who was appointed by DeSantis.
Warren, who serves in an elected position, is viewed as a “rising star” in Democratic circles throughout the state. He decried his suspension as a “political stunt” and an “illegal overreach that continues a dangerous pattern by Ron DeSantis of using his office to further his own political ambition.”
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… pic.twitter.com/RzPXksSSWa
— Andrew Warren (@AndrewWarrenFL) August 4, 2022
“The people have the right to elect their own leaders — not have them dictated by an aspiring presidential candidate,” Warren said, noting DeSantis’s ambitions for higher office.
“Based on the governor’s track record with unconstitutional orders, this will be just as unconstitutional,” he went on.
Warren further condemned the governor’s action during a Thursday interview on CNN.
The order is “not even talking about things that I’ve done in the office,” Warren said. “It is talking about things I may do in the future…I mean this is out of, like, 1984 Orwellian thought police.”
