Palmetto Bay Council member Steve Cody drew ample ire in September for making light of conservative activist Charlie Kirk\u2019s murder, with many, including his City Hall peers, calling for his resignation.<\/p>\n
Now Cody, with the help of lawyers from the ACLU of Florida<\/a>, is suing the village for what it calls \u201cretaliatory punishment,\u201d including removing him from a committee and barring him from related roles.<\/p>\n \u201cIn America, you don\u2019t get to lose your voice in government because someone disagrees with your speech,\u201d Cody said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Village was free to criticize me. You can disagree with speech. You can condemn it. But you cannot punish it. That\u2019s the line the Constitution draws, and that\u2019s the line the Village crossed.\u201d<\/p>\n On Sept. 10, 2025, the same day Kirk was killed by gunfire at Utah Valley University, Cody wrote on Facebook<\/a>, \u201cCharlie Kirk is a fitting sacrifice to our Lords: (gun manufacturer) Smith & Wesson. Hallowed be their names.\u201d<\/p>\n After outrage erupted, Cody told Florida Politics he was referencing a comment Kirk made about how some wrongful gun deaths were acceptable in protecting the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n Those demanding that Cody step down included U.S. Rep. Carlos Gim\u00e9nez, Attorney General James Uthmeier, state Sen. Ileana Garcia, state Reps. Omar Blanco and Juan Porras \u2014 all Republicans \u2014 and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Danielle Cohen Higgins, a Democrat whose district includes Palmetto Bay.<\/p>\n All four of Cody\u2019s peers on the Village Council<\/a>, including Mayor Karyn Cunningham, also voted to censure him<\/a> and request that Gov. Ron DeSantis remove him from office.<\/p>\n Cody, a former lawyer now in his second term on the Council, apologized and removed the post, which he said he regretted.<\/p>\n He refused to resign. DeSantis never stepped in.<\/p>\n But in a 17-page complaint<\/a> filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida last week, Cody accuses Palmetto Bay officials of not letting the issue go and later penalizing his speech.<\/p>\n Among other things, Cody says the Village Council removed him as its liaison to the Village\u2019s Education Advisory Committee, rescinded his appointments to other Boards and external bodies, stripped his authority to speak or act on the Council\u2019s behalf, and blocked him from presenting any official Village recognition at events.<\/p>\n Village records show a resolution to impose those limitations on Cody, sponsored by Vice Mayor Mark Merwitzer, passed<\/a> during a Special Council meeting Nov. 17.<\/p>\n In January, a Miami-Dade Judge tossed a prior lawsuit<\/a> Cody filed claiming Merwitzer was improperly sworn into office in 2024 and, consequently, all his official actions since should be nullified. WLRN reported that Cody began targeting Merwitzer with the lawsuit, the basis for which Judge Jacqueline Woodward called \u201cwholly fabricated,\u201d after the Vice Mayor rescinded a contract<\/a> with a lobbyist to whom Cody had ties.<\/p>\n Another suit Cody filed accused Merwitzer of violating Florida\u2019s Sunshine Law by withholding public records from him \u2014 a claim Merwitzer denied, telling WLRN that the request was being filed, just not as quickly as Cody wanted.<\/p>\n Cody\u2019s current lawsuit argues those actions constituted unconstitutional retaliation and viewpoint discrimination under federal law. It also claims the village\u2019s actions had a chilling effect on speech, harmed Cody\u2019s reputation and the democratic process, and interfered with village voters\u2019 rights to representation by their chosen official.<\/p>\n \u201cElected officials do not surrender their First Amendment rights when they take office, and the government cannot punish speech simply because they find it offensive,\u201d Nicholas Warren, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Florida, said in a statement. \u201cThe people have the right to elect representatives who will feel free to speak their minds without threat of government sanctions, even when what they have to say is unpopular.\u201d<\/p>\n Cody\u2019s Seat 2 represents Palmetto Bay residents within the northern boundary of Southwest 152nd Street and the southern boundary of Southwest 168th Street, excluding all of the Royal Harbor Yacht Club and Paradise Point.<\/p>\n \u201cPlaintiff does not challenge the Village\u2019s authority to express disapproval or to adopt a purely verbal censure,\u201d the suit says. \u201cPlaintiff challenges only the Village\u2019s subsequent escalation \u2026 from censure to tangible punishment \u2014 including removing Plaintiff from an official government role \u2014 imposed solely because of his protected speech.\u201d<\/p>\n