expected to defend the laws of the state<\/a>.<\/p>\nHe shouldn\u2019t be asking courts to throw out laws he doesn\u2019t like. He shouldn\u2019t be meddling in criminal cases where his interference can strike a crippling blow to the progress of a homicide prosecution.<\/p>\n
Three strikes in a row<\/p>\n
Most recently, he\u2019s refused to defend Florida\u2019s concealed-carry law in the case of a Broward teenager.<\/p>\n
Last year, he asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Florida\u2019s law against 18-to-20-year olds buying rifles. The Legislature passed that law after a 19-year-old with an assault rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition shot 34 people and killed 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.<\/p>\n
Saturday, Valentine\u2019s Day, was the eighth anniversary of that horrific tragedy. How easily some people forget.<\/p>\n
The high court has shown no interest in taking up the Florida ban, which the National Rifle Association appealed last year after the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it. But the NRA\u2019s petition, and Uthmeier\u2019s shocking brief, remain on the docket.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier claims that he made open carry of weapons legal statewide last year by refusing to appeal a First District Court of Appeal (DCA) decision overturning the law against it.<\/p>\n
The gun lobby had been unable to get that even from Florida\u2019s reliably gun-friendly state Legislature. Uthmeier gave it to them all by himself simply by accepting a bad decision from one of Florida\u2019s most political courts. The kicker? There\u2019s no real precedent saying that the attorney general has that kind of life-or-death power over the law.<\/p>\n
He keeps pushing<\/p>\n
Now he wants the Fourth District Court of Appeal to overturn the Broward conviction of Jaylen Eubanks, charged in 2024 as an 18-year-old with carrying a concealed weapon and with improperly exhibiting it.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier wants the law ruled unconstitutional as it applies to 18-to-20-year-olds. At the time, his brief says, \u201cEubanks had no legal means of publicly carrying a firearm for self-defense.\u201d His brief implies that the entire law would be unconstitutional if Floridians couldn\u2019t carry firearms openly.<\/p>\n
Eubanks pleaded no contest, which preserved his right to challenge the law. Circuit Judge Lorena Mastrarrigo upheld it and sentenced Eubanks to probation. Later, in a different case, Circuit Judge Frank Ledee ruled against the law, but Eubanks\u2019 appeal is the first case to reach an appellate court.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier isn\u2019t simply taking Eubanks\u2019 side.<\/p>\n
Silencing a prosecutor<\/p>\n
He has also outrageously forbidden Harold Pryor, the elected state attorney for Broward, from contesting the appeal. Pryor, whose office prosecuted Eubanks, has asked the 4th DCA to let him file a friend-of-the court brief, but Uthmeier and Eubanks\u2019 public defender oppose that, too.
In a statement, Pryor noted \u201cthe impact of gun crimes in Florida,\u201d including Parkland.<\/p>\n
Even if the court allows Pryor to file \u2014 which it absolutely should \u2014 it would be difficult for the court to uphold the law with no one officially defending it.<\/p>\n
A decision for Eubanks and Uthmeier might also effectively nullify the post-Parkland law against persons under 21 buying rifles and frustrate enforcement of the longstanding federal law prohibiting their purchase of handguns.<\/p>\n
As Pryor points out, it\u2019s his office that is carrying out the intent of the Legislature, and it\u2019s Uthmeier whose \u201cconcession prevents legitimate arguments from being presented.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Tallahassee, the House has, for a fourth time, passed a bill (HB 133) to repeal the youth purchase ban, but there\u2019s still no sign of interest by the Senate. The 74-37 pro-gun vote in the House suggests there\u2019s no point trying to impeach Uthmeier, although he deserves it.<\/p>\n
A DeSantis hatchet man<\/p>\n
Uthmeier was chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis before being appointed attorney general to replace Ashley Moody, another gun lobby shill whom DeSantis sent to the U.S. Senate, replacing Marco Rubio.<\/p>\n
As the governor\u2019s hatchet man, Uthmeier was deeply involved in the suspensions of two elected Democratic state attorneys, Andrew Warren in Tampa and Monique Worrell in Orlando, on trumped-up charges of insufficient prosecutions.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier is still hounding Worrell, who was re-elected overwhelmingly. He says she abuses her discretion, and has threatened to have DeSantis suspend her again. We believe his outrage is as phony as his claims: Worrell has always acted within the boundaries of her own prosecutorial discretion, something that can\u2019t be said for Uthmeier.<\/p>\n
What Worrell has never done, however, is to dispute the constitutionality of a single law that she\u2019s supposed to enforce. Uthmeier\u2019s hypocrisy is stupendous.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s obviously no daylight between DeSantis and the attorney general, who should be independent. His office is one of three in the elected Cabinet, which is supposed to be a check on the governor\u2019s power. But DeSantis has appointed two of the three (also including Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia).<\/p>\n
In the meantime, an election is approaching. Uthmeier\u2019s faithlessness to all of the laws of this state is a significant issue for voters to consider.<\/p>\n
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Executive Editor Roger Simmons, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Executive Editor Gretchen Day-Bryant, Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney and editorial writers Pat Beall and Martin Dyckman. Send letters to insight@orlandosentinel.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gun lobby pays a whole lot of money to its lawyers, but James Uthmeier is a bargain.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2853,482,139,141,140,109,76410],"class_list":["post-159578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-editorials","tag-opinion","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social","tag-social-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}