Puddin’ Fingers DeSantis now has the power to override the will of voters and remove almost any prosecutor he doesn’t like.
The anti-democratic decision came from an all-Republican court, natch.
The ruling was in response to State Attorney Monique Worrell's challenge of her suspension by Gov. Ron DeSantis. DeSantis seems to be making a habit of suspending duly-elected prosecutors he doesn’t like.
Law Dork’s Chris Geidner called the ruling “a stark escalation of the line of cases and, ultimately, of the governor’s power.” It’s also a stark diminution of the voters’ power.
On a 6-1 vote Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court gave its governor all-but-unfettered power to remove locally elected prosecutors — a power that could quickly render Floridians’ “freedom” to “vote” for a prosecutor a fiction unless federal courts step in.
It is not the first Florida Supreme Court case examining the governor’s power to restrict elected prosecutors. And yet, Thursday’s decision — in light of the weakness of Gov. Ron DeSantis’s order suspending Monique Worrell from office as the state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties — is stunning for both its scope and potential consequences.
The per curiam ruling — meaning, “for the court,” but also meaning, “not under any one justice’s name” — creates an almost insurmountable burden under the state’s Constitution — specifically, Article IV, section 7 — for any challenger in the future[.]
Yet last I checked, “Family Values” enforcer and “prowling” throuple bixexual Bridget Ziegler is still on the Sarasota County school board and on the Board of Supervisors of the Disney district that was part of another DeSantis power grab, this one after Disney dared to oppose his “Don’t Say Gay” law.
