A federal judge took the extraordinary step of holding Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, in civil contempt of court on Tuesday in a continuing clash over the state’s new immigration enforcement law.
The judge, Kathleen M. Williams of the Federal District Court in Miami, ruled that Mr. Uthmeier had defied an order putting part of the new law on hold when he told police officers that he could not “prevent” them from making arrests under it.
“Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a court’s clear and unambiguous order,” Judge Williams said in a 27-page ruling. “Fidelity to the rule of law can have no other meaning.”
“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,” Mr. Uthmeier wrote on social media on Tuesday evening.
The judge ordered Mr. Uthmeier’s office to produce biweekly reports, in coordination with state attorneys and other law enforcement agencies, detailing whether “any arrests, detentions, or law enforcement actions” under the disputed provision of the state law had occurred. The first report is due on July 1.
The court must also be immediately notified of any arrests under the law’s provision, the judge said. In the event any arrests occur, the court will require the attorney general to again notify law enforcement agencies of the judge’s order “to prevent future violations.”
If Mr. Uthmeier does not comply with the sanctions, Judge Williams wrote, she will consider additional ones, “including fines and fees to compensate plaintiffs for costs of enforcing the court’s order.”
Mr. Uthmeier, a Republican who until recently served as Gov. Ron DeSantis’s chief of staff, said on a conservative podcast in early June that if Judge Williams wanted “to lock me up in jail, I’m willing to take that,” though the judge was never considering criminal contempt. “I’m not going to cave and renege on my oath to uphold and defend our state constitution and laws,” he said.
Judge Williams ruled a few weeks after a contentious court hearing in which she strongly criticized Mr. Uthmeier’s actions. If defendants like Mr. Uthmeier, the state’s top law enforcement officer, do not follow court orders, she said at the time, then “anarchy” could follow.
The legal battle is focused on one part of a law that Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, signed in February. The provision in question made it a state crime for unauthorized immigrants to enter Florida.
Judge Williams temporarily blocked enforcement of that provision in April, saying it was most likely unconstitutional. Several plaintiffs, including the Florida Immigrant Coalition and the Farmworker Association of Florida, had argued that the provision encroached on federal duties.
Mr. Uthmeier had countered that the judge’s order was too broad because it applied not only to the named defendants but also local and state police agencies.
On June 6, an appellate court rejected the state’s request to stay Judge Williams’s order. Among other things, that court noted Mr. Uthmeier’s “seemingly defiant posture vis-à-vis the district court.”
“He may well be right that the district court’s order is impermissibly broad,” the appeals court found. “But that does not warrant what seems to have been at least a veiled threat not to obey” Judge Williams’s order.
After Judge Williams put the provision on hold in April, Mr. Uthmeier told local law enforcement agencies that they should hold off on arresting people suspected of violating it. But a week later, he told the agencies in a second letter that he could not “prevent” such arrests from taking place.
That led Judge Williams to ask Mr. Uthmeier’s lawyers in late April for some sort of redress, saying that he had been “inviting police officers” to defy her order. Lawyers for Mr. Uthmeier argued that he was merely stating his legal position, not inviting any such behavior.
Mr. Uthmeier then said in a TV interview that Judge Williams did not “have jurisdiction” to keep law enforcement officers from making arrests. Mr. Uthmeier’s spokesman referred to Judge Williams on social media as an “Obama-appointed judge” engaged in “lawfare.”
Mr. DeSantis, who appointed Mr. Uthmeier as attorney general in February, said that Judge Williams “wrongly” ruled against the state law and said she had “no authority” to order Mr. Uthmeier to stop arrests.
Jesse Panuccio, a lawyer for Mr. Uthmeier, said in the hearing, in late May, that Judge Williams was focusing too narrowly on a “snippet” of the attorney general’s second letter and not considering its full context.
He added that state police agencies had not made any additional arrests under the law since she issued her restraining order on April 18.
Patricia Mazzei is the lead reporter for The Times in Miami, covering Florida and Puerto Rico.
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