Florida Supreme Court upholds Gov. DeSantis suspension of Monique Worrell

The Florida Supreme Court shot down suspended State Attorney Monique Worrell’s challenge to Gov. Ron DeSantis stripping her of power.

Six of seven Justices on the court said DeSantis had the right to suspend Worrell last August, and that an order doing so met requirements of the law. Worrell was first elected in 2020 as State Attorney in Florida’s 9th Judicial Circuit, which covers Orange and Osceola counties.

“We cannot agree with Worrell that the allegations in the Executive Order are impermissibly vague, nor that they address conduct that falls within the lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion,” a majority opinion reads.

Justices Carlos G. Muñiz, Charles Canady, John Couriel, Jamie Grosshans and Meredith Sasso all joined in a majority opinion denying Worrell’s legal challenge of the suspension. Justice Renetha Francis also agreed with the result of the decision but wrote a separate opinion raising concerns about the process of reviewing suspensions.

Only Justice Jorge Labarga disagreed with the majority, writing in a dissenting opinion that DeSantis failed to show a specific reason for suspending Worrell. He also wrote that State Attorneys must maintain prosecutorial discretion.

“In this case, I would grant Worrell’s petition for quo warranto relief because the allegations in the executive order are insufficient to provide her with sufficient notice to allow her to mount a meaningful defense,” Labarga wrote.

Worrell said she was disappointed but not surprised.

“The governor appointed most of the justices on Florida’s Supreme Court,” she said in a statement. “They took the easy way out by refusing to examine whether the governor’s claims had any factual basis. They do not, and the Court today, with the exception of the dissenting justice, rubber-stamped a political stunt.”

DeSantis suspended Worrell on the grounds she had failed to consistently enforce the law. The Governor criticized Worrell, alleging that the Democratic official was weak on crime.

An executive order specifically took her to task for seeking mandatory minimum sentences on crimes involving firearms. It noted that the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office referred 58 non-homicide robbery with a firearm cases to prosecutors in 2021 and 2022. But as of May, only one of those cases resulted in a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years.

The order also noted that the judicial circuit had one of the lowest prison admission rates in the state for robbery with a weapon, armed burglary and weapons possession.

But Worrell challenged the assertions. In a petition filed to the court in September, the suspended State Attorney argued DeSantis had failed to cite any specific behavior that would allow the Governor under state law to suspend her, such as drunkenness or committing a crime.

“The Executive Order is invalid because it fails to allege any specific conduct of Ms. Worrell that, if true, would constitute a basis for suspension on the ground of neglect of duty or incompetence,” the petition reads. “Instead, the Order wrongly attempts to infer her ‘practices and policies’ from inapposite data, but even if such practices and policies existed, they would not constitute a ground for suspension.”

But a court majority felt DeSantis’ order had any specifics that he indeed had the authority to suspend Worrell.

“We have said that a suspension order does not infringe on a state attorney’s lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion where it alleges that such discretion is, in fact, not being exercised in individual cases but, rather, that generalized policies have resulted in categorical enforcement practices,” the majority opinion reads.

Worrell has already qualified to run for another term as State Attorney, formally launching her campaign in January. She was the only Democrat to qualify.

“There is no evidence that citizens in the Ninth Circuit have experienced a higher rate of violent crime based on my administration’s ‘practices or policies,’ and the Executive Order is notably silent on violent crime statistics,” she said.

“Those statistics show that violent crime rates are lower in the Ninth Circuit during my tenure than they have been over the past 10 years. We treated people equitably and fairly and worked to hold law enforcement accountable — which the Governor does not like. I still believe in the right of voters to choose their State Attorney, even if Florida’s politics currently do not respect this principle. When I am reelected, I will continue putting public safety and accountability above politics. I wish the governor would do the same.”

Andrew Bain, who DeSantis appointed as acting State Attorney in the circuit, qualified to run as an independent. Meanwhile, Republicans Thomas Feiter and Seth Hyman also qualified for a Republican Primary.

Opinion – Disposition by Jacob Ogles on Scribd