Florida Attorney General Held in Contempt by Federal Judge Over Immigration Letter

MIAMI – On Tuesday, a federal judge found Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in civil contempt due to a letter he sent in April to law enforcement after she had ordered a stop to the enforcement of a new state immigration law.

U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams stated that Uthmeier did not comply with a directive to inform police agencies that a temporary restraining order prevented them from enforcing the law aimed at undocumented immigrants entering the state.

“Uthmeier’s position grants him a unique ability to either support or weaken the rule of law, and when he opts for the latter by disobeying a court order, the integrity of the legal system relies on bringing his behavior within the scope of the court’s corrective measures,” Williams expressed in Tuesday’s 27-page ruling.

The decision came after a series of events that started April 4 when Williams issued a temporary restraining order to block enforcement of the law, which passed during a February special legislative session and created state crimes for undocumented immigrants who enter or re-enter Florida.

Williams extended the temporary restraining order April 18 and directed Uthmeier to send a letter notifying police agencies that they could not enforce the law. The directive came after reports of arrests. Uthmeier sent such a letter on April 18 but followed with an April 23 letter that spurred the contempt issue.

Uthmeier has argued that the temporary restraining order — and a longer-lasting preliminary injunction issued later — should only apply to him and local state attorneys because they were the named defendants in the underlying legal challenge to the law (SB 4-C).

[WATCH video to learn about new Florida immigration laws passed this year]

In the April 23 letter to police agencies, Uthmeier reiterated that position and said he could not prevent police from enforcing the law “where there remains no judicial order that properly restrains you from doing so,” Tuesday’s decision said.

Williams said that statement and other wording in the letter violated her order, writing that in a “variety of ways, Uthmeier’s April 23rd letter conveyed to law enforcement that they could and should disregard the April 18th letter’s message that they were required by court order to cease enforcement of SB 4-C.”

The judge on April 29 approved the preliminary injunction against the law and ordered Uthmeier to “show cause” about why he should not be held in contempt or sanctioned because of the April 23 letter.

In a court filing last month, Uthmeier’s lawyers said he complied with the temporary restraining order by not enforcing the law and notifying law enforcement agencies about the temporary restraining order. The filing said Uthmeier was free to express his disagreement with Williams’ decision in the April 23 letter.

“The attorney general has consistently abided by the court’s order to cease enforcing (the law),” the document said. “Nowhere does the TRO (expressly or impliedly) require the attorney general to refrain from sharing his views about the order with law enforcement.”

The filing also said Williams’ reading of the April 23 letter “relies on one portion of one sentence, rather than reading (the) letter as a whole and in the context of what preceded it: the April 18 letter” and a legal brief that also was filed April 23.

“In the April 23 letter, the attorney general expressly reiterated the court’s conclusion that the TRO ‘bound’ the letter’s recipients,” Uthmeier’s lawyers wrote. “He explained — as he had in the April 18 letter — that he believed the court’s conclusion as to permissible scope of the TRO was ‘wrong,’ and he noted that the April 18 letter had promised his ‘office would be arguing as much in short order.’”

But Williams on Tuesday also pointed to public comments that Uthmeier made, including that he would not order law-enforcement agencies to “stand down on enforcing the Trump agenda and carrying out Florida’s law.”

“To be clear, the court (Williams) is unconcerned with Uthmeier’s criticism and disapproval of the court and the court’s order,” the judge wrote. “But respect for the integrity of court orders is of paramount importance. Within the bounds of the local rules and professional rules of conduct, Uthmeier is free to broadcast his continued appeal of the court’s injunction and his view that the court’s rulings are erroneous. However, when instructed to inform law enforcement that they are proscribed from enforcing an enjoined law, he may not tell them otherwise.”

To carry out the contempt finding, Williams ordered Uthmeier to file bi-weekly reports about whether any arrests, detentions or other law-enforcement actions had occurred under the blocked law. She wrote that she has not been made aware of any arrests or detentions since the April 18 order.

The Florida Immigrant Coalition, the Farmworker Association of Florida and two individual plaintiffs filed the lawsuit on April 2, contending, in part, that the law violates what is known as the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility.

In issuing the preliminary injunction, Williams said the law likely was preempted by federal immigration authority. Among other things, she pointed to the law requiring that violators go to jail.

Legislative supporters of the law and Gov. Ron DeSantis said the law was designed to help carry out President Donald Trump’s immigration policies. DeSantis appointed Uthmeier as attorney general in February, after Uthmeier served as the governor’s chief of staff.

Uthmeier has appealed the April 29 preliminary injunction to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where the issue remains pending.

[READ the ruling by the federal judge below]