A former Florida state attorney is suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for violating his First Amendment rights two weeks after he was removed from office for his stance on abortion and transgender prosecutions.
DeSantis ousted Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren from his position on Aug. 4, stating that Warren disregarded his duty to enforce state laws after he signed two statements indicating he would not pursue cases related to abortion and transgender medical care for minors, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“State Attorneys have a duty to prosecute crimes as defined in Florida law, not to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on his personal agenda,” the Florida governor said.
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Warren’s federal lawsuit, filed on Wednesday, accused DeSantis of violating his free speech rights and right to prosecutorial discretion, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The lawsuit states DeSantis’s order does not identify sufficient reasoning to justify a suspension, according to court documents.
If the lawsuit is upheld, it will be up to the Republican-led Senate to reinstate Warren as a state attorney, Fox 4 News reported.
There have been multiple reports of various conflicts between Warren (a Democrat) and DeSantis (a Republican), who disagree on several policy areas, including abortion and transgender rights.
Warren said during a press conference on Wednesday that by removing him from his position, Desantis was “overturning a fair election and throwing out the votes of hundreds of thousands of Floridians.”
The former state attorney wrote in an opinion piece for the Washington Post on Aug. 12 that he continues to deliver on the promises he made to voters and the statements he signed with prosecutors were value statements that opposed DeSantis’s policies.
“Florida’s current 15-week abortion ban was found to violate the Florida Constitution by the first court to review it. And Florida has no criminal law at all regarding medical treatments of gender-affirming care. His allegations of ‘neglect of duty’ and ‘incompetence’ are based not on what I have done but on what he predicts I will do,” Warren wrote.
The lawsuit comes after the Florida 1st District Court of Appeals upheld a state judge’s decision that a 16-year-old girl who is 10 weeks pregnant was deemed not mature enough to decide to get an abortion, Politico reported.
Currently, Florida allows abortions up until 15 weeks. The 15-week abortion ban, which took effect July 1, was blocked in July by a state court, putting the original 24-week ban back in place. Hours later, the state filed an appeal, reinstating the 15-week ban. It is now being disputed in court.
The teenager, who has no parents but has a guardian through the state’s child welfare agency, attempted to bypass a state law that requires parental consent before minors can have an abortion, Politico reported.
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Warren said at the conference that he was challenging DeSantis’s “blatant abuse of power.”
“By challenging this illegal abuse of power, we can make sure that no governor can toss out the result of an election because he doesn’t like the outcome,” Warren said at the conference.
The Washington Examiner reached out to DeSantis’s office for a statement.
