Gov. Ron DeSantis suspended Warren in August, accusing him of “incompetence and willful defiance of his duties.”
Warren filed a lawsuit challenging the suspension, arguing that it was politically motivated and violated his speech rights. U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled in January that DeSantis’ suspension violated the Florida Constitution and the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, but the judge said he lacked authority to reverse the governor’s action.
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has granted Warren’s request to expedite the case, according to a scheduling order issued Wednesday.
DeSantis’ Aug. 4 executive order suspending Warren pointed to a letter the prosecutor signed pledging to avoid enforcing a new law preventing abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The governor also targeted a statement Warren joined condemning the criminalization of transgender people and gender-affirming care.
In addition, DeSantis cited Warren policies that could limit prosecution of cases related to bicycle and pedestrian stops by police and certain low-level offenses.
But Hinkle found that Warren’s office had not embraced such non-prosecution policies and concluded that the governor and his aides targeted Warren because of the prosecutor’s left-leaning approach.
“In short, the controlling motivations for the suspension were the interest in bringing down a reform prosecutor —- a prosecutor whose performance did not match the governor’s law-and-order agenda —- and the political benefit that would result. The actual facts —- whether Mr. Warren actually had any blanket non-prosecution policies —- did not matter. All that was needed was a pretext to justify the suspension under the Florida Constitution,” Hinkle’s ruling said.
Warren has also filed a legal challenge at the Florida Supreme Court.
This article appears in Mar 2-8, 2023.