Florida Supreme Court Sides With DeSantis Over Suspension of George Soros-Backed State Prosecutor
The prosecutor ‘allowed murderers, other violent offenders, and dangerous drug traffickers to receive extremely reduced sentences and escape the full consequences of their conduct,’ Mr. DeSantis said.
The Florida Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Governor DeSantis’s decision to suspend a George Soros-backed state attorney, Monique Worrell, was reasonable based on the allegations Mr. DeSantis made.
Six of the seven justices on the Florida Supreme Court ruled in Mr. DeSantis’s favor. One justice dissented.
Mr. DeSantis alleged that Ms. Worrell, who was state attorney for Orange and Osceola counties in central Florida, avoided issuing the mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes as well as drug trafficking offenses and that she allowed repeat offenders to avoid jail time.
“The practices and policies of her office have allowed murderers, other violent offenders, and dangerous drug traffickers to receive extremely reduced sentences and escape the full consequences of their conduct,” Mr. DeSantis said when he suspended her in August 2023. “State Attorney Worrell’s practices undermine Florida law and endanger the safety, security and welfare of the communities Ms. Worrell was elected to serve.”
Ms. Worrell’s attorneys, seeking her reinstatement, argued that Mr. DeSantis’s dismissal of Ms. Worrell was “arbitrary, unsubstantiated exercise of the suspension power,” which did not identify specific policies of the office.
“Instead, the order vaguely refers to Ms. Worrell’s ‘practices and policies’ throughout but notably fails to identify a single, specific policy or practice, making the order distinguishable from recent cases involving other Florida state attorneys, where the executive orders identified specific policies alleged to constitute a neglect of duty,” the complaint on Ms. Worrell’s behalf reads.
The court, however, sided with Mr. DeSantis, saying that it does not agree that the allegations “are impermissibly vague, nor that they address conduct that falls within the lawful exercise of prosecutorial discretion.”
Although the justices of the Florida Supreme Court are technically nonpartisan, all of the seven justices have been appointed by a Republican governor and five of them were appointed by Mr. DeSantis personally.
