Latest news with #11thCircuitCourtofAppeals
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge considers penalizing DeSantis-picked attorney general over Florida immigration law
MIAMI — A federal judge seemed wary of arguments during a Thursday court hearing that state Attorney General James Uthmeier, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, hadn't tried to undermine her court order blocking a Florida immigration law. Yet U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said she would take the defense of Uthmeier's attorney, Jesse Panuccio, into consideration and review a past court case outlining the standards for potentially holding Uthmeier in contempt. She promised to issue a ruling soon — one that could result in Uthmeier receiving a fine or jail time if she does determine he's in contempt. The law in question makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to enter Florida. Williams, an Obama-era appointee, put a temporary hold on it last month after the ACLU challenged the law, and predicted it would be found unconstitutional. She said state and local law enforcement officials could not use the law to arrest people. Thursday's nearly two-hour hearing centered on a memo Uthmeier sent on April 23 — a few weeks after Williams' hold — that disagreed with the ruling and argued 'no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Florida's new illegal entry and reentry laws.' The ACLU said those comments indicated Uthmeier was telling law enforcement officials to disobey the judge's order and arrest people anyway. But Florida's attorney general argued in court filings that he was merely stating his legal objections. He argued he did obey the order by telling officers in an earlier letter, issued five days prior, to put enforcement on hold until the case made its way through the courts. Panuccio argued Thursday that both letters needed to be considered in context together. He said the intent of the second letter was for Uthmeier to clarify news reports that appeared to show he told officers not to enforce the immigration law. In reality, he said, the order had been the judge's. The second letter was also supposed to update the public on how Uthmeier appealed Williams' ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and why, he added. (Uthmeier was not present for the hearing.) Williams appeared skeptical about Uthmeier's intent, calling herself a 'very linear thinker.' At one point she dug into Panuccio over Uthmeier's comments — not just from his letter last month, but remarks he made during news interviews disagreeing with her ruling. In one instance, Uthmeier said he was 'not going to rubber stamp' the order or 'direct law enforcement to stand down on enforcing the Trump agenda or carrying out Florida's law.' 'That was just one,' she said of the example she quoted loosely. 'There are buckets.' Panuccio disputed using the comments from that interview during the hearing, saying the court should only be focused on briefs entered into the court record rather than what officials say during media interviews. Using the comments to make a final decision about court contempt could raise constitutional concerns about free speech and the power of the states, he added. Williams shot back: 'You're inviting me to consider context and I'm considering context.' She also noted that Panuccio had himself raised an unspecified news report in arguing one of the reasons Uthmeier wrote the second letter. 'When someone tells you who they are, you should listen,' she said later in the hearing. But Panuccio also repeatedly referenced a case about standards for issuing contempt of court decisions, including that there should be no ambiguity in how the comments can be interpreted. Williams said she wanted to look at the case more closely as she makes her decision. Uthmeier, who was appointed to his role by DeSantis in February, has the governor's support over his actions. He was previously DeSantis' chief of staff and will be running to keep his job in the 2026 election. ACLU deputy director Cody Wofsy, who argued against Uthmeier in court Thursday, insisted the second letter's wording was 'more damning than the next' and said Uthmeier should have rushed to clarify his words if he hadn't meant them to come across the way they did. 'He may have held those goals,' he said of Panuccio's description of Uthmeier's letter, 'but they don't explain the decision of issuing the letter.' The judge signaled she was open to his argument. 'There needs to be an appreciation and abiding by court order or else this all becomes anarchy,' she said. But Panuccio rebutted with the fact that local law enforcement officials had made no arrests under that portion of the law since Uthmeier's April 18 letter. (Dozens had been arrested before.) That, he said, serves as evidence that Williams' ruling is widely seen as binding among law enforcement. An attorney for the state backed him up at one point after Williams asked whether they'd checked to confirm that no one had been arrested.
Politico
5 days ago
- Politics
- Politico
Federal judge considers penalizing DeSantis-picked attorney general over Florida immigration law
MIAMI — A federal judge seemed wary of arguments during a Thursday court hearing that state Attorney General James Uthmeier, an appointee of Gov. Ron DeSantis, hadn't tried to undermine her court order blocking a Florida immigration law. Yet U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams said she would take the defense of Uthmeier's attorney, Jesse Panuccio, into consideration and review a past court case outlining the standards for potentially holding Uthmeier in contempt. She promised to issue a ruling soon — one that could result in Uthmeier receiving a fine or jail time if she does determine he's in contempt. The law in question makes it a crime for undocumented immigrants to enter Florida. Williams, an Obama-era appointee, put a temporary hold on it last month after the ACLU challenged the law, and predicted it would be found unconstitutional. She said state and local law enforcement officials could not use the law to arrest people. Thursday's nearly two-hour hearing centered on a memo Uthmeier sent on April 23 — a few weeks after Williams' hold — that disagreed with the ruling and argued 'no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Florida's new illegal entry and reentry laws.' The ACLU said those comments indicated Uthmeier was telling law enforcement officials to disobey the judge's order and arrest people anyway. But Florida's attorney general argued in court filings that he was merely stating his legal objections. He argued he did obey the order by telling officers in an earlier letter, issued five days prior, to put enforcement on hold until the case made its way through the courts. Panuccio argued Thursday that both letters needed to be considered in context together. He said the intent of the second letter was for Uthmeier to clarify news reports that appeared to show he told officers not to enforce the immigration law. In reality, he said, the order had been the judge's. The second letter was also supposed to update the public on how Uthmeier appealed Williams' ruling to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and why, he added. (Uthmeier was not present for the hearing.) Williams appeared skeptical about Uthmeier's intent, calling herself a 'very linear thinker.' At one point she dug into Panuccio over Uthmeier's comments — not just from his letter last month, but remarks he made during news interviews disagreeing with her ruling. In one instance, Uthmeier said he was 'not going to rubber stamp' the order or 'direct law enforcement to stand down on enforcing the Trump agenda or carrying out Florida's law.' 'That was just one,' she said of the example she quoted loosely. 'There are buckets.' Panuccio disputed using the comments from that interview during the hearing, saying the court should only be focused on briefs entered into the court record rather than what officials say during media interviews. Using the comments to make a final decision about court contempt could raise constitutional concerns about free speech and the power of the states, he added. Williams shot back: 'You're inviting me to consider context and I'm considering context.' She also noted that Panuccio had himself raised an unspecified news report in arguing one of the reasons Uthmeier wrote the second letter. 'When someone tells you who they are, you should listen,' she said later in the hearing. But Panuccio also repeatedly referenced a case about standards for issuing contempt of court decisions, including that there should be no ambiguity in how the comments can be interpreted. Williams said she wanted to look at the case more closely as she makes her decision. Uthmeier, who was appointed to his role by DeSantis in February, has the governor's support over his actions. He was previously DeSantis' chief of staff and will be running to keep his job in the 2026 election. ACLU deputy director Cody Wofsy, who argued against Uthmeier in court Thursday, insisted the second letter's wording was 'more damning than the next' and said Uthmeier should have rushed to clarify his words if he hadn't meant them to come across the way they did. 'He may have held those goals,' he said of Panuccio's description of Uthmeier's letter, 'but they don't explain the decision of issuing the letter.' The judge signaled she was open to his argument. 'There needs to be an appreciation and abiding by court order or else this all becomes anarchy,' she said. But Panuccio rebutted with the fact that local law enforcement officials had made no arrests under that portion of the law since Uthmeier's April 18 letter. (Dozens had been arrested before.) That, he said, serves as evidence that Williams' ruling is widely seen as binding among law enforcement. An attorney for the state backed him up at one point after Williams asked whether they'd checked to confirm that no one had been arrested.
Hindustan Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Judge considers whether Florida's attorney general should be held in contempt over immigration law
MIAMI — A federal judge heard arguments Thursday on whether Florida's attorney general should be held in contempt or sanctioned for not following her order prohibiting the enforcement of a new state law making it a misdemeanor for people in the U.S. illegally to enter Florida. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams didn't make an immediate decision following an almost two-hour court hearing. Attorney General James Uthmeier didn't attend the court session in Miami. The federal judge had specified in a ruling last month that her temporary restraining order against enforcing the Florida law applied to all of the state's local law enforcement agencies. She later noted that there was a substantial likelihood that the Florida law would be found unconstitutional. But Uthmeier sent out an April 23 letter to Florida's law enforcement agencies saying that he couldn't prevent law enforcement officers from enforcing the law '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,' he said in the letter. Dozens of people, including a U.S. citizen, have been arrested under the law. Uthmeier has appealed the judge's order to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. Uthmeier, a former chief of staff to Ron DeSantis, was appointed to the position by the Republican governor after then-state Attorney General Ashley Moody was picked to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Marco Rubio, who was nominated to be President Donald Trump's secretary of state. In court papers, Uthmeier said he was merely notifying local law enforcement agencies in the letter that he had filed a court brief that held a legal view disagreeing with the judge's order. He had obeyed the judge's order by notifying local law enforcement agencies in an April 18 letter that they couldn't enforce the law while the court case proceeded, according to Uthmeier's court filings. 'There is no basis for contempt or sanctions,' Uthmeier said. 'Interpreting an order to prohibit a state attorney general from disagreeing with a federal order — while following it — would also be an extraordinary, first-of-its-kind assertion of federal judicial power, implicating grave constitutional concerns.' Attorneys for immigrants' rights groups that challenged the Florida law said it was unacceptable that the attorney general's letter 'encouraged arrests that he fully understood were specifically prohibited.' Even if Uthmeier's arguments are taken at face value, that he was merely stating his legal position, he has done nothing to clear up the confusion despite given ample opportunities, said lawyers for the immigrants' rights groups. They said the options the judge could consider include financial sanctions and referring Uthmeier's conduct to the Florida Bar for disciplinary proceedings or to federal authorities for prosecution. 'Considered objectively and in the context of the earlier letter, the Attorney General's second letter plainly undermined the notice he was directed to provide, and invited arrests which he knew would be violations of this court's order," the immigrants rights' lawyers said in court papers. "That is quintessential contempt of court.' Follow Mike Schneider on the social platform Bluesky: @
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Trump pardons Jupiter shark divers who destroyed a fisherman's longline, released catch
WEST PALM BEACH — President Donald Trump has pardoned two Florida shark divers convicted of theft for rescuing sharks and a goliath grouper from what they believed was an illegal longline. The May 28 pardon grants full clemency to John Moore Jr. and Tanner Mansell, who spotted the longline 3 miles off the Jupiter Inlet on Aug. 10, 2020, and pulled it ashore. The gear alone cost the vessel owner about $1,300, and the value of the lost sharks amounted to several thousand more. Tourists aboard Moore and Mansell's boat testified that the men believed they were doing the right thing by confiscating the line and releasing the 19 sharks snagged by its hooks. Defense attorneys Marc Seitles and Ashley Litwin, who helped secure the men's pardon, said prosecutors' decision to pursue charges anyway was a clear case of government overreach. Trump agreed. "I'm finally free! I'm a free man," Mansell wrote in a text in the wake of his pardon. "I never stopped believing something or someone would do something about this, see the absurdity in this case and help me." Moore and Mansell say they believed they were thwarting a crime by releasing the sharks, not actively committing one. It's why they called state wildlife officers to report the line, and why they smiled as they hauled the fishing gear onto a Jupiter dock — a moment photographed and shared online by a local blogger. The photo went viral. It ruptured an already tenuous relationship between the local fishing and shark-diving industries and prompted Scott Taylor, captain of the boat to which the longline belonged, to call a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration investigator and seek criminal charges. The 3-mile longline belonged to one of only five vessels in the world permitted by NOAA to harvest sandbar sharks for research. Federal prosecutors argued that the divers knew the line was legal and sabotaged it anyway to preserve shark populations for their own commercial interests. A GoFundMe campaign raised more than $28,000 for the divers' legal defense, while one launched for the fisherman raised about $4,500. The divers rejected a misdemeanor plea deal on the eve of trial and chose not to testify in their defense, either. Jurors deliberated for three days — longer than the trial itself — before finding the divers guilty. U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sentenced the pair to one year of probation and ordered them to pay $3,345 in restitution to the Fort Pierce fisherman whose equipment was destroyed. Though spared from prison, their convictions made them felons, unable to vote, own firearms or freely travel abroad. Trump is not alone in questioning the legitimacy of Moore and Mansell's prosecution. During a 2024 hearing in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, two judges voiced confusion over why the men were charged with a crime to begin with. Appellate Judge Barbara Lagoa said Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Watts-Fitzgerald prosecuted the men "for reasons that defy understanding." She compared him to Inspector Javert — the relentless lawman from "Les Misérables" who pursued a man for decades over the theft of a single loaf of bread. 'Moore and Mansell are felons because they tried to save sharks from what they believed to be an illegal poaching operation," Lagoa wrote. "They are the only felons I have ever encountered, in eighteen years on the bench and three years as a federal prosecutor, who called law enforcement to report what they were seeing and what actions they were taking in real time.' Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Barry Partelow declined to investigate the longline immediately, and instead told Moore to leave it on the dock for him to collect later. By the time the officer finally returned, the line had been picked clean of its hardware and loaded into a dumpster at the order of the harbor master. Go deeper: Jupiter divers who freed sharks from fishing line want their theft convictions overturned. What the judges said. Despite what Lagoa called "troublesome aspects of the case," she and two other judges affirmed the divers' convictions last year, rejecting the argument that Middlebrooks had erred by refusing to instruct jurors that theft requires intent to use the property for personal gain. The court held that under federal law, it was enough that the divers intentionally took property that wasn't theirs. Trump's pardon marks the latest in a series of high-profile clemency actions aimed at criticizing what he has characterized as prosecutorial overreach. Mansell, in a text to The Palm Beach Post, thanked his appellate attorney Andrew Adler and Trump. "Whether people believe in his politics or not, he chose to pardon me, somebody who deeply cares for the environment and only ever wanted to help," he wrote. "I can't help but feel extremely grateful." Mansell's trial attorney, Ian Goldstein, said he was "absolutely thrilled" by the news. "There couldn't have been a more deserving client," Goldstein said. "This case never should have been brought in the first place." Watts-Fitzgerald declined to comment on both the pardon and the Inspector Javert comparison. He instead referred questions to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, who declined to comment, too. Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@ This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Trump pardons Florida shark divers who freed fisherman's catch, line
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Radical and wrong': Florida vows to fight rulings against ‘anti-drag' law
NAPLES, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said his office will challenge recent court decisions that call the constitutionality of the state's drag show ban into question. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals backed a lower court ruling that described Florida's law, purportedly aimed at protecting children from drag shows, as overly broad and vaguely written. The lawsuit was filed by Hamburger Mary's in Orlando, which hosted child-friendly drag shows on the weekends. 'Casanova killer' set for execution today at Florida State Prison A spokesperson for the office of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis called the ruling an overreach by a federal court. 'No one has a constitutional right to perform sexual routines in front of little kids,' the statement said, according to the Associated Press. 'We will do everything possible to have this lawless decision overturned.' In a separate case, a U.S. district judge granted a preliminary injunction in a win for Naples Pride, which sued the city over its refusal to grant a permit for an outdoor drag performance. The city's decision violated the group's First Amendment rights, according to the ruling, which asserted that drag shows are protected speech. 'I stand by our law that protects kids from drag shows and other sexually explicit adult performances. The decisions out of Fort Myers and the Eleventh Circuit panel are both radical and wrong,' Uthmeier wrote in a post on X. Advocates against the 2023 bill have asserted that the law was meant to chill free speech and targeted the LGBTQ+ community by stoking fears of a conspiracy to 'groom' children. The law does not directly name drag shows, the bill's sponsor said it was aimed at those performances. 'Trans activists don't have the First Amendment right to expose kids to their weird sexual fetishes,' Uthmeier added. Venues that violate the so-called 'anti-drag' law face fines and the possibility of having their liquor licenses suspended or revoked. Individuals face misdemeanor charges if found to be in violation of the law. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
