{"id":121387,"date":"2025-06-02T07:03:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T15:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/02\/fl-attorney-general-plays-stupid-games-wins-stupid-prizes\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T07:03:25","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T15:03:25","slug":"fl-attorney-general-plays-stupid-games-wins-stupid-prizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/06\/02\/fl-attorney-general-plays-stupid-games-wins-stupid-prizes\/","title":{"rendered":"FL Attorney General Plays Stupid Games, Wins Stupid Prizes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier bloody well understands the Supremacy Clause. This asshole graduated from Georgetown Law \u2014\u00a0and not that long ago! The question now is whether he\u2019s so committed to pretending to be an idiot that he\u2019s willing to get held in contempt of court.<\/p>\n

The \u201ctrouble\u201d started when Governor Ron DeSantis (HLS 2005) signed a bill purporting to enact a state-specific immigration regime. Specifically, Florida Senate Bill 4-C<\/a> purported to criminalize \u201cillegal entry by adult unauthorized alien into this state,\u201d with escalating penalties for \u201cillegal reentry.\u201d The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states are preempted from crafting competing immigration schemes under the Supremacy Clause. Indeed, a similar law was enjoined<\/a> last year by Judge Roy Altman, a Trump appointee. And so it\u2019s hardly surprising that this year\u2019s version got blocked<\/a>, too, this time by Judge Kathleen Williams, who was named to the bench by Obama.<\/p>\n

But AG Uthmeier was thinking outside the box! See, the plaintiffs only sued him and the States Attorneys in Florida\u2019s 20 Judicial Circuits. They failed to name every county cop driving a cruiser up and down 95. And so \u2026 maybe Officer Swampbritches isn\u2019t bound by the court\u2019s order???<\/p>\n

On April 23, after the court had entered a TRO but before it entered the PI, AG Florida Man sent a letter<\/a> to state law enforcement agencies. In it, he encouraged them to continue making arrests under the enjoined law, even if prosecutors were all barred from charging anyone under it:<\/p>\n

\n

I cannot prevent you from enforcing \u00a7\u00a7 811.102 and 811.103, 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\u2019s new illegal entry and reentry laws.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Three days later, the plaintiffs, a coalition of immigrants\u2019 rights groups, made the court aware of \u201cthis apparent effort to undermine the Court\u2019s order\u201d in a supplemental brief<\/a>. Judge Williams demanded that Uthmeier explain himself, which he did on May 12, with an assist from three lawyers from Boies Schiller. They insist that their client did not<\/em> violate the court\u2019s order, because it was only in the PI that she \u201cexpanded\u201d it to include parties not named. <\/p>\n

This position is rather undercut by a letter<\/a> Uthmeier sent on April 18, noting that the judge \u201cclarified verbally that her order covers all law enforcement officers in the State of Florida.\u201d But, the brilliant Boies boys had an answer for that one, too. And it is HAVEN\u2019T YOU HEARD OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT?<\/p>\n

\u201c[C]ommenting about a law\u2014even strongly, and even in legally relevant ways\u2014does not enforce the law,\u201d the insist, adding that \u201cThe Attorney General did not direct law enforcement officials to do anything. Nor did he compel law enforcement officials to do anything. Rather, he explained his \u2018view \u2026 [a]s set forth in the brief [his] office filed.\u2019 That is not enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bold strategy, Cotton! Particularly since Uthmeier flapped his yap all over local TV, vowing<\/a> that \u201cI\u2019m not going to rubber stamp her order. \u2026 I\u2019m not going to ask law enforcement to stand down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The matter came to a head yesterday in court, during a fiery show cause hearing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Mr. Uthmeier saying what he meant,\u201d Judge Williams said, according to the Miami Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Politico<\/a> reports that Uthmeier\u2019s counsel urged the judge not<\/em> to consider the AG\u2019s out of court statements, which went over like a lead balloon.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cYou\u2019re inviting me to consider context and I\u2019m considering context,\u201d she shot back.<\/p>\n

The court took the matter of contempt under advisement. <\/p>\n

TL, DR: GULC, COME GET YOUR BOY!<\/em><\/p>\n

Florida Immigrant Coalition v. Uthmeier<\/a> [Docket via Court Listener]<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post FL Attorney General Plays Stupid Games, Wins Stupid Prizes<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier bloody well understands the Supremacy Clause. This asshole graduated from Georgetown Law \u2014\u00a0and not that long ago! The question now is whether he\u2019s so committed to pretending to be an idiot that he\u2019s willing to get held in contempt of court.<\/p>\n

The \u201ctrouble\u201d started when Governor Ron DeSantis (HLS 2005) signed a bill purporting to enact a state-specific immigration regime. Specifically, Florida Senate Bill 4-C<\/a> purported to criminalize \u201cillegal entry by adult unauthorized alien into this state,\u201d with escalating penalties for \u201cillegal reentry.\u201d The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that states are preempted from crafting competing immigration schemes under the Supremacy Clause. Indeed, a similar law was enjoined<\/a> last year by Judge Roy Altman, a Trump appointee. And so it\u2019s hardly surprising that this year\u2019s version got blocked<\/a>, too, this time by Judge Kathleen Williams, who was named to the bench by Obama.<\/p>\n

But AG Uthmeier was thinking outside the box! See, the plaintiffs only sued him and the States Attorneys in Florida\u2019s 20 Judicial Circuits. They failed to name every county cop driving a cruiser up and down 95. And so \u2026 maybe Officer Swampbritches isn\u2019t bound by the court\u2019s order???<\/p>\n

On April 23, after the court had entered a TRO but before it entered the PI, AG Florida Man sent a letter<\/a> to state law enforcement agencies. In it, he encouraged them to continue making arrests under the enjoined law, even if prosecutors were all barred from charging anyone under it:<\/p>\n

\n

I cannot prevent you from enforcing \u00a7\u00a7 811.102 and 811.103, 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\u2019s new illegal entry and reentry laws.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Three days later, the plaintiffs, a coalition of immigrants\u2019 rights groups, made the court aware of \u201cthis apparent effort to undermine the Court\u2019s order\u201d in a supplemental brief<\/a>. Judge Williams demanded that Uthmeier explain himself, which he did on May 12, with an assist from three lawyers from Boies Schiller. They insist that their client did not<\/em> violate the court\u2019s order, because it was only in the PI that she \u201cexpanded\u201d it to include parties not named. <\/p>\n

This position is rather undercut by a letter<\/a> Uthmeier sent on April 18, noting that the judge \u201cclarified verbally that her order covers all law enforcement officers in the State of Florida.\u201d But, the brilliant Boies boys had an answer for that one, too. And it is HAVEN\u2019T YOU HEARD OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT?<\/p>\n

\u201c[C]ommenting about a law\u2014even strongly, and even in legally relevant ways\u2014does not enforce the law,\u201d the insist, adding that \u201cThe Attorney General did not direct law enforcement officials to do anything. Nor did he compel law enforcement officials to do anything. Rather, he explained his \u2018view \u2026 [a]s set forth in the brief [his] office filed.\u2019 That is not enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a bold strategy, Cotton! Particularly since Uthmeier flapped his yap all over local TV, vowing<\/a> that \u201cI\u2019m not going to rubber stamp her order. \u2026 I\u2019m not going to ask law enforcement to stand down.\u201d<\/p>\n

The matter came to a head yesterday in court, during a fiery show cause hearing. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s Mr. Uthmeier saying what he meant,\u201d Judge Williams said, according to the Miami Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Politico<\/a> reports that Uthmeier\u2019s counsel urged the judge not<\/em> to consider the AG\u2019s out of court statements, which went over like a lead balloon.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u201cYou\u2019re inviting me to consider context and I\u2019m considering context,\u201d she shot back.<\/p>\n

The court took the matter of contempt under advisement. <\/p>\n

TL, DR: GULC, COME GET YOUR BOY!<\/em><\/p>\n

Florida Immigrant Coalition v. Uthmeier<\/a> [Docket via Court Listener]<\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0lives in Baltimore where she produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0substack<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The post FL Attorney General Plays Stupid Games, Wins Stupid Prizes<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier bloody well understands the Supremacy Clause. This asshole graduated from Georgetown Law \u2014\u00a0and not that long ago! The question now is whether he\u2019s so committed to pretending to be an idiot that he\u2019s willing to get held in contempt of court. The \u201ctrouble\u201d started when Governor Ron DeSantis (HLS 2005) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":121049,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/GettyImages-165551235-620x459-958ML6.jpeg?fit=620%2C459&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}