For the first time in recent history, a federal judge on Tuesday found Florida’s attorney general in contempt of court for referring to the court’s order blocking a new state immigration law as illegitimate and unlawful.
While U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ ruling is extraordinary, she spared James Uthmeier from paying hefty fines or spending time in jail. Instead, Williams ordered the state’s chief legal officer to submit biweekly reports to ensure police don’t arrest anyone under an immigration law she blocked in April.
Quoting Humpty Dumpty in her order, Williams chastised Uthmeier.
“Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a court’s clear and unambiguous order,” she wrote. “Fidelity to the rule of law can have no other meaning.”
The order followed a May 29 hearing in Miami, where Williams repeatedly locked horns with Jesse Panuccio, the prominent lawyer defending Uthmeier, during arguments about whether to hold him in contempt.
At issue in the contempt decision was a letter Uthmeier sent to law enforcement agencies, sheriffs, and police chiefs on April 23, stating that he couldn’t stop them from making arrests under SB 4C, a law making it a first-degree misdemeanor for a person to enter the state as an “unauthorized alien.”
“If being held in contempt is what it costs to defend the rule of law and stand firmly behind President Trump’s agenda on illegal immigration, so be it,” Uthmeier wrote on X.
Arrests after Williams’ order
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 4C on Feb. 13, but Williams blocked its enforcement temporarily after the Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida, and two women lacking permanent legal status brought suit against the state.
Still, law enforcement carried out arrests after Williams barred them from doing so. A Florida Highway Patrol trooper’s arrest of Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, a U.S. citizen from Georgia, garnered international attention after it was first reported by the Florida Phoenix.
An investigation by the Tampa Bay Times found that police, mostly other troopers, arrested 25 people on April 4, but didn’t find evidence of arrests after April 18. The second date is important because that is when Williams issued a second order clarifying that her suspension of the law applied to cops, which the state argued against, claiming that Uthmeier lacked authority to stop the arrests.
Williams also noted in her Tuesday order various interviews and social media posts from Uthemeier flouting the temporary block on the law.
Leading up to the hearing, Uthmeier said during an interview that aired on Newsmax on May 6 that he wouldn’t rubber stamp her order.
“To be clear, the Court is unconcerned with Uthmeier’s criticism and disapproval of the Court and the Court’s Order,” she wrote. “But respect for the integrity of court orders is of paramount importance.”
After six months, Uthmeier can ask Williams to stop the reporting requirement, but Williams warned there would be additional sanctions if he disobeys her.
The law will remain blocked for the remainder of the litigation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sided with the plaintiffs on June 6 and upheld the temporary bar, with the order stating that federal law likely preempted SB 4C.
Read the complaint gov.uscourts.flsd.686918.96.0
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Michael Moline for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com.
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