With the Florida Supreme Court slated to hear arguments Dec. 6, lawyers for suspended Orlando-area State Attorney Monique Worrell contended this week that Gov. Ron DeSantis “seeks to establish a precedent that allows him to suspend local state officials at will.”
The lawyers filed a 23-page brief Tuesday as part of an attempt to get Worrell reinstated as the top prosecutor in the 9th Judicial Circuit in Orange and Osceola counties.
DeSantis on Aug. 9 issued an executive order suspending Worrell, a Democrat elected in 2020.
Among other things, the order alleged that Worrell’s policies prevented or discouraged assistant state attorneys from seeking minimum mandatory sentences for gun crimes and drug trafficking offenses.
Worrell filed a challenge at the Supreme Court and reiterated arguments in Tuesday’s brief that DeSantis did not have a legal basis to suspend her.
“According to Governor DeSantis, this (Supreme) Court should not be concerned that his use of the suspension power to target elected state officials for his own political ends thwarts the will of the voters,” Tuesday’s brief said. “Florida voters, the governor claims, not only know of his suspension power but also expect him to use it. Leaving aside this dubious premise, the majority of voters in the Ninth Judicial Circuit did not vote for Governor DeSantis, but instead voted for his Democratic opponent.”
In a court document Oct. 24, however, DeSantis urged justices to reject Worrell’s challenge to the suspension.
Under state law, the Florida Senate has final authority to decide whether to remove suspended officials.
“(Part of the Florida Constitution) authorizes the governor to suspend an official for enumerated grounds and grants the Senate alone the power to remove (from office),” attorneys for DeSantis wrote. “The Senate thus is invested with the sole discretion to decide whether the governor’s suspension order adequately stated grounds for suspension, just as the Constitution entrusts to that body the sole power to try impeachments. This (Supreme) Court should now make clear what it has often implied: the validity of a suspension and removal is a non-justiciable political question.”
©2023 The News Service of Florida
