Appeals court rules that Gov. DeSantis did not delay release of migrant flight communications

Ron DeSantis agrees to release all the details of his migrant flight stunt.

A circuit court says Gov. Ron DeSantis did not wrongfully delay releasing records regarding a controversial migrant flight program.

A three-Judge panel for the 1st District Court of Appeal unanimously reversed a 2022 circuit court ruling that the administration failed to comply with a public records request involving the flight of migrants from the Mexican border in Texas to Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts as part of a program funded by Florida tax dollars.

That included failing to provide cellphone and email communications from James Uthmeier, DeSantis’ Chief of Staff at the time and now Florida’s Attorney General.

The state immediately appealed the circuit court ruling. The appellate court said the records request from the Florida Center for Government Accountability was time-consuming and sought a number of records likely not subject to public disclosure.

“The public records sought were not singular documents or already composed files (like a court file where the records custodian merely accesses it electronically or pulls it off the shelf),” the opinion reads.

The opinion was written by Judge Rachel Nordby, who was appointed by DeSantis in 2019. Judge Brad Thomas, an appointee of former Gov. Jeb Bush, and Judge Thomas Winokur, who was appointed by former Gov. Rick Scott, concurred.

“This was a comprehensive request that, due to its scope, was going to take some time,” the opinion reads.

“For example, the Center wanted ‘all records sent to or received from (Texas Gov.) Greg Abbott, or any agent, representative, employee, attorney or other individual or entity acting on behalf of Greg Abbott, or the State of Texas,’ regarding the alien relocation. This single part of the request alone would require the records custodian to consult many government officials to determine ‘whether such a record exists and, if so, the location at which the record can be accessed.’”

It points specifically to a request for Uthmeier’s phone and text logs, including communications over his personal devices. But the court said only records related to government business would be subject to scrutiny and sifting through what would fall in that category would require time.

Importantly, the state has not asked courts to overrule the lower court decision that too much information was redacted from records eventually provided to the Center.

The lower court decision on the delay was reversed and remanded back to the circuit court level.