TALLAHASSEE, Florida (LifeSiteNews) — A liberal Florida prosecutor who pledged not to enforce laws against abortion and the surgical and chemical mutilation of individuals lost another court case against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who removed him from his position.
Governor DeSantis suspended Andrew Warren as the Hillsborough County prosecutor in August 2022 after he pledged, along with other prosecutors, not “use [their] discretion and not promote the criminalization of gender-affirming healthcare or transgender people.”
“In the second Joint Statement, the signatories asserted that, among other things, they [will] ‘decline to use [their] offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive health decisions and commit to exercise [their] well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abortions,” the Supreme Court of Florida wrote in its June 22 decision, summarizing the story of the suit.
Gov. DeSantis cited these two statements along with two policies Warren supported which were considered as soft-on-crime.
The court rejected Warren’s claim for an “expeditious review” of the suspension, noting that he waited five months before asking the state court system to intervene, choosing instead to try to obtain relief at the federal level.
The next step will be a hearing in the Florida Senate to determine if Warren should be completely removed from his position.
“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,” DeSantis said in August 2022 when he announced the suspension.
“It is my duty to hold Florida’s elected officials to the highest standards for the people of Florida. I have the utmost trust that Judge Susan Lopez will lead the office through this transition and faithfully uphold the rule of law.”