Suspended Orange-Osceola state attorney Monique Worrell reiterated her call Tuesday evening to be reinstated by the Florida Supreme Court, pushing back against Gov. Ron DeSantis’ claim that the Florida Senate rather than the court has the authority to decide.
The response filed in a brief by Worrell’s lawyers said the Supreme Court has decided on the validity of suspension orders by governors in the past. It further warned that accepting the argument made by lawyers representing DeSantis would be “contrary to well established precedent.”
“That position should give this Court great pause,” Worrell’s legal team argued. “Such an expansion of the Governor’s suspension power would lead to substantial abuse of the suspension power and have a chilling effect on state attorneys and other elected officials throughout the state.”
At the center of Worrell’s challenge to her suspension is that DeSantis did not cite specific “adopted policies and practices” that resulted in “undercharging, excessively slow case times and the evasion of certain sentence enhancements required by the Legislature.”
Worrell and supporters, among them several former state Supreme Court justices who filed a brief backing her, argue she was exercising legal discretion and DeSantis exceeded his authority by suspending her over political disagreements.
In his suspension order issued Aug. 9, DeSantis cited data self-reported by Central Florida law enforcement agencies. Tuesday’s filing by Worrell’s legal team pushed back specifically against data on the outcomes of drug-trafficking cases presented by the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office, calling them “unsubstantiated.”
Those cases became the subject of a public back and forth earlier this year between Worrell and Sheriff Marcos López, with the ousted state attorney pointing out flaws with the cases López showed to reporters. DeSantis counts the Florida Sheriff’s Association among supporters, with a brief filed Friday on the organization’s behalf arguing in support of Worrell’s suspension.
“[E]ven if true, these isolated referral numbers cannot reasonably be relied on to establish neglect of duty or incompetence by Ms. Worrell,” according to Tuesday’s filing by Worrell’s lawyers.
Regardless, DeSantis’s lawyers argued on Oct. 24 that the Senate, rather than the Supreme Court, is “invested with the sole discretion to decide whether the governor’s suspension order is adequately stated grounds for suspension.”
“This Court should now make clear what it has often implied: the validity of a suspension and removal is a non-justiciable political question,” his lawyers wrote.
The Supreme Court is scheduled Dec. 6 to hear oral arguments in the case.
