A federal judge on Jan. 20 declined to reinstate a Tampa-area prosecutor suspended in August 2022 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Federal Judge Robert L. Hinkle criticized DeSantis throughout a 59-page opinion, saying the governor’s office investigation of suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren was politically motivated and cursory, and the official doing it didn’t even take notes. Hinkle detailed that Warren’s declarations that he wouldn’t enforce certain laws were not, in fact, “blanket prohibitions” against doing so.
But Hinkle ruled he didn’t, as a federal judge, have the power under the U.S. Constitution’s 11th Amendment to interfere in this type of state matter. Hinkle ruled that Warren could pursue the case in state courts, but his federal lawsuit was concluded….