The Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments in a case about Gov. Ron DeSantis’s suspension earlier this summer of an elected Florida district attorney over allegations that she neglected her duties. State Attorney Monique Worrell, the suspended municipal prosecutor in Orange and Osceola counties, petitioned the court to reinstate her.
During the hearing, justices on the court vacillated between contradictory positions, arguing on the one hand that they weren’t there to litigate the facts of DeSantis’s claims against Worrell, and on the other suggesting that she neglected prosecutorial duties.
As part of his remaking of Florida’s government, DeSantis has stacked the court with his allies and pressured it to enact his political agenda. For DeSantis, the court is yet another venue for expanding his authority and fanning the flames of a right-wing culture war by attacking criminal justice reform.
Worrell won election in 2020 with an overwhelming victory against a “law-and-order” opponent. She ran on addressing mass incarceration, restoring public trust in the office, and serving victims. DeSantis suspended Worrell in August, making her the second prosecutor he removed from office over political disagreements.
The attacks on prosecutors have far-reaching implications for the future of the criminal justice system and how state lawmakers exercise their authority and undermine the will of voters who elected reformers, Worrell’s attorney Laura Ferguson said during the arguments.
“If a governor were able to remove a prosecutor of a different political party simply because they disagreed with their policies and categorize that as a neglect of duty or incompetence,” Ferguson said, “then that will have a substantial chilling effect on how state attorneys perform their roles or their willingness to serve.”
In one exchange during the hearing, Ferguson said DeSantis’s allegations that the district attorney had “practices or policies” to not prosecute certain categories of crimes were false and that she considered cases individually.
Justice Charles Canady, whose wife is a DeSantis ally, interrupted Ferguson. “That’s not what’s alleged though,” Canady said. “What’s alleged, to kind of sum it up, is that she has policies that under-prosecute certain categories.”
“The order infers and speculates about policies,” Ferguson said in response.
“It makes assertions, it makes allegations,” Canady replied. “It doesn’t have to prove it.” He said a trial in the Florida Senate over Worrell’s removal — on hold because of the Supreme Court challenge — would adjudicate those claims.
The attempt to remove elected prosecutors in Florida is part of a nationwide trend of Republicans looking to gain favor with the electorate through punitive, though potentially anti-democratic, policies. At least 17 states have launched similar efforts to curb the rise of reform-minded prosecutors who won office in increasing numbers since the mid-2010s.
Last month, Georgia’s Supreme Court blocked an effort by Republican lawmakers who sought to use a new state law to oust the prosecutor who indicted former President Donald Trump.
Prior to winning the office, Worrell had worked under outgoing State Attorney Aramis Ayala. Ayala — a prosecutor who, like Worrell, is a Black woman — fell victim to the growing push to oust or limit the authority of elected reformers when former Florida Gov. Rick Scott removed her for refusing to seek the death penalty.
Monique Worrell holds a press conference outside her former office in the Orange County Courthouse complex on Aug. 9, 2023, in Florida.
Monique Worrell v. Ron D. DeSantis
DeSantis said he suspended Worrell for incompetence and “neglecting her duty to faithfully prosecute crime.” He appointed retired Judge Andrew Bain, a Federalist Society member, to replace her. A year earlier, DeSantis suspended Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren after he said he would not charge people who sought abortions under the state’s new abortion ban.
The suspensions are widely seen as part of DeSantis’s effort to remake the state and its criminal justice system in his own image and to his political advantage — a remaking that extends all the way up to the Supreme Court. The conservative judicial activist Leonard Leo aided DeSantis’s efforts on the courts by leading a secret panel of advisers to vet the judicial nominees before they take office.
DeSantis has also worked to bring justices who took the bench prior to his term into his fold. Canady’s wife, Jennifer, for instance, was elected last year to the Florida House. She has emerged as a close DeSantis ally in the legislature, co-sponsoring his signature six-week abortion ban. She is already in line to be the next speaker, with DeSantis’s help.
The governor has also been accused of orchestrating a “judicial gerrymander.” His allies in the Florida House requested that the court consider a plan to redraw and consolidate judicial districts; the court created a commission to do so in June. Worrell’s reelection chances, for example, would be severely impacted in a proposed redrawn district that waters down the progressive vote. The project would also advance DeSantis’s political agenda: His office worked behind the scenes with police to tarnish the reputations of both Worrell and Warren, the Daily Beast reported.
The battle for the independence of the judiciary was on full display during Wednesday’s hearing. Worrell’s attorney argued that DeSantis had exceeded his constitutional authority in suspending her without specifying acts in which Worrell had neglected her prosecutorial duty.
The order does not list examples of policies that neglect prosecutorial duty, Ferguson argued: “It just speculates that because she ran on a particular platform, she must have certain policies. They can’t identify a single policy,” she said. “The order talks about how her office ‘discourages,’ which doesn’t sound like a policy. It talks about ‘practices,’ but can’t identify a single example.”
“This is a governor who has used his suspension order with great frequency and in an unprecedented way and targeted those of a different political party.”
DeSantis’s lawyer argued that Worrell’s petition was not justiciable, meaning it referred to matters outside the court’s jurisdiction.
Chief Justice Carlos Muñiz asked if the governor’s office planned to specify policies and practices that proved neglect. DeSantis’s lawyer said the governor’s office had authority to remove a prosecutor if it could only show they weren’t effective at prosecuting crime.
Worrell’s record on prison admission was “abysmal,” the DeSantis lawyer said. Even if she had no specific objectionable policies, such data would be grounds to remove her. “If there was nothing specific she was doing, she just was just not effective at prosecuting crime, we think that that would be enough,” he argued. But that was not a question for the high court to decide.
“It’s remarkable that the governor’s lead argument is that this court cannot review whether his order is constitutional,” Ferguson said. “This is a governor who has used his suspension order with great frequency and in an unprecedented way and targeted those of a different political party.”
