A federal judge held Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt for sending a letter to local police suggesting he couldn’t prevent them from disobeying her order pausing a new immigration law.
U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ruled on Tuesday that the letter violated her order, leading Florida’s top prosecutor to respond that “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.”
In her decision, Williams wrote that Uthmeier offered “a series of implausible interpretations of the language he used” to argue he was complying with the order.
“Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a court’s clear and unambiguous order,” Williams wrote, ordering Uthmeier to file biweekly reports proving he is complying with her order, with the first being filed by July 1.
Williams has also cited Uthmeier’s remarks on the matter to the press, referencing a May 6 interview, in which he said: “This judge is considering whether or not to hold me in contempt. But I am not going to rubber-stamp her order. I’m not going to direct law enforcement to stand down on enforcing the Trump agenda and carrying out Florida’s law. … I’m not going to bow down.”
The debacle started in February when Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill into law that made it a misdemeanor for illegal immigrants to enter the state as part of President Donald Trump’s push to crack down on illegal immigration.
Within weeks, Williams halted enforcement of the law by placing a temporary restraining order on the new measure on April 4. She extended the temporary restraining order again on April 18, directing Uthmeier to inform law enforcement that they could not enforce the law.
On April 18, Uthmeier complied with the judge’s request, sending a memo to police agencies ordering officers to stop making arrests related to the law.
Days later, however, the Republican attorney general issued a second letter that kick-started the row with the courts. In the April 23 memo, Uthmeier wrote that he could not prevent police from enforcing the law, writing that “no judicial order … properly restrains you from” enforcing the immigration law. He added that “no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce” the statute.
“Judge Williams ordered my office to notify you of the evolving scope of her order, and I did so,” he wrote. “But I cannot prevent you from enforcing [the challenged laws], where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so. As set forth in the brief my office filed today, it is my view that no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Florida’s new illegal entry and reentry laws.”
Williams responded to the second letter by ordering the attorney general on April 29 to show cause why her court should not hold him in contempt for violating her temporary restraining order.
DESANTIS AND FLORIDA LEGISLATURE COME TO DEAL ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LAWS
In a court filing responding to the request last month, Uthmeier’s lawyers argued that the attorney general was simply expressing his disagreement with Williams’s decision in the letter and claimed the judge’s interpretation of the memo “relies on one portion of one sentence, rather than reading [the] letter as a whole.”
However, he was unable to provide convincing evidence to the judge, as demonstrated by Williams’s Tuesday ruling holding him in contempt of the court.