Andrew H. Warren v. Ron DeSantis
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Andrew H. Warren v. Ron DeSantis, 90 F.4th 1115 (11th Cir. 2024)
Andrew H. Warren v. Ron DeSantis
Opinion
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 1 of 59
[PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 23-10459
____________________
ANDREW H. WARREN,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
versus
RON DESANTIS,
Individually and in his Official Capacity as
Governor of the State of Florida,
Defendant-Appellee.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 4:22-cv-00302-RH-MAF
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 2 of 59
2 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
____________________
Before JILL PRYOR and NEWSOM, Circuit Judges, and CONWAY, * Dis-
trict Judge.
JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judge:
We vacate our previous opinion and substitute the follow-
ing.
* * *
Voters elected Andrew Warren to serve as the state attorney
for Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit. While serving, Warren im-
plemented new policies and advocated reforms. Based on Warren’s
policies and advocacy, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis suspended
him from office and appointed a political ally to replace him.
Warren sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, claiming that DeSantis
suspended him in retaliation for his First Amendment activity and
seeking reinstatement. After a bench trial, the district court found
that six factors motivated DeSantis to suspend Warren. The court
concluded that two of the factors relied on First Amendment-pro-
tected activity. After finding that Warren’s protected activity moti-
vated DeSantis, the district court nonetheless rejected Warren’s
claims on the merits. Setting aside the protected activity, the court
* Honorable Anne C. Conway, United States District Judge for the Middle Dis-
trict of Florida, sitting by designation.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 3 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 3
decided that DeSantis would have suspended Warren anyway,
based on the unprotected activity.
The district court erred in concluding that the First Amend-
ment did not protect the activities behind two of the other factors.
We therefore vacate and remand. On remand, the district court
should reconsider whether DeSantis would have made the same
decision based solely on the unprotected activities.
I. BACKGROUND
Voters twice elected Andrew Warren to serve as the state
attorney for Florida’s Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, which encom-
passes Hillsborough County, whose seat is Tampa. Florida state at-
torneys are state officers, locally elected to four-year terms. See Fla.
Const. art. V, § 17; Fla. Stat. § 27.01. State attorneys prosecute all
criminal actions in the state courts within their circuit. Fla. Stat.
§ 27.02.
DeSantis suspended Warren in August 2022, during War-
ren’s second term. Florida’s constitution permits the governor to
suspend unimpeachable state officers for enumerated reasons, such
as neglect of duty or incompetence. Fla. Const. art. IV, § 7(a). The
governor suspends only; the Florida Senate removes or reinstates
the officer. Id. § 7(b).
In this Part, we begin with Warren’s policies and his advo-
cacy. Next, we move to DeSantis’s inquiry and his resulting sus-
pension of Warren. We then recount this case’s procedural history.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 4 of 59
4 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
A. Warren’s Actions
Warren won election for state attorney in 2016, defeating a
four-term incumbent by around 4,500 votes. Warren, a Democrat,
ran on a reform platform which emphasized being tough on certain
offenders, finding innovative solutions for others, and furthering
criminal justice beyond simply prosecuting cases. Warren believed
he fulfilled many campaign promises in his first term. Voters appar-
ently agreed, reelecting him in 2020 by around 45,000 votes. Dur-
ing his second term, he continued to enact policies and advocate
reforms.
1. Warren’s Policies
As state attorney, Warren adopted policies to provide con-
sistency and guide over 100 attorneys in his office as they prose-
cuted between 50,000 and 60,000 cases annually. Many policies
concerned specific crimes, like Warren’s policy to aggressively
prosecute domestic violence offenders. Other policies provided
overarching guidance, like his policy to exercise individualized dis-
cretion in every case. Three policies are relevant to this appeal.
The first is Warren’s Discretion Policy. Warren prioritized
exercising individualized discretion in prosecutorial decisions from
his first day in office. He formalized that priority as policy early in
his second term. The Discretion Policy provided examples to guide
prosecutorial decisions. But it stressed that “[c]ase-specific deci-
sions must be made according to the unique facts and circum-
stances of the case. Therefore, it is impossible to provide examples
that dictate the appropriate decision in every situation across a
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 5 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 5
category of cases.” Doc. 112-7 at 8. 1 The examples thus were “not
mandatory charging policies that must be followed in every situa-
tion.” Id.
Warren used a process to adopt the Discretion Policy. In
fact, he used a process whenever he adopted policies. The process
involved consulting an executive committee, on which senior pros-
ecutors served; drafting and revising the policy, which sometimes
included outside input; finalizing the policy and informing manag-
ers about it; and, finally, training on the new policy. Warren col-
lected his policies in a guidebook provided to prosecutors in his of-
fice and available on an internal site.
The Discretion Policy complemented Warren’s other poli-
cies, including those that created presumptions about exercising
discretion in certain cases. One such policy, for example, created a
presumption that prosecutors would seek at least the mandatory
minimum sentence in felon-in-possession-of-firearms cases. Prose-
cutors could document substantial mitigation to rebut the pre-
sumption, allowing them to offer plea deals below the mandatory
minimum.
The second policy is Warren’s Low-Level Offense Policy,
which influenced DeSantis’s suspension decision. The Low-Level
Offense Policy listed charges that the office would presumptively
not prosecute. These offenses were “low level” because most had
only a 60-day maximum sentence. Many offenders served even less
1 “Doc.” refers to the district court’s docket entries.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 6 of 59
6 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
time. Warren designed the policy to mitigate COVID-19’s effects:
the virus delayed arrestees’ initial court appearances and caused
backlogs that resulted in extended detentions. These delays and
backlogs raised potential constitutional concerns under the Sixth
Amendment’s Speedy Trial Clause and the Eighth Amendment.
They also implicated fairness principles. By eliminating or reducing
prosecutions for low-level offenses, the policy would alleviate
those concerns. Although designed to address those concerns, the
policy included no sunset provision for when the virus’s effects
dwindled, and thus it continued in force. Yet even when the pol-
icy’s nonprosecution presumption was in force, it could be—and in
fact was—overcome based on public safety concerns.
The third policy is Warren’s Bike Policy, which also influ-
enced DeSantis’s suspension decision. The Bike Policy created a
nonprosecution presumption in cases resulting from noncriminal
bike and pedestrian violations. This policy stemmed from commu-
nity input; it addressed the disproportionate racial impact of bike
and pedestrian stops. Like the Low-Level Offense Policy, this pol-
icy’s nonprosecution presumption could be overcome based on
public safety concerns. And, in fact, it was. Days after Warren im-
plemented the Bike Policy, his office filed drug trafficking and par-
aphernalia possession charges resulting from a civil bike stop.
Warren adopted the Low-Level Offense Policy and the Bike
Policy through his policymaking process. Both policies received
outside input, for example. Community law enforcement partners,
including the Tampa Police Department and the Hillsborough
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 7 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 7
County Sheriff’s Office, discussed the Low-Level Offense Policy
with Warren’s office. Law enforcement partners also considered
the Bike Policy. Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister told
Warren that the Sheriff’s Office rarely conducted bike stops. In-
terim Tampa Police Chief Ruben Delgado described the Tampa
police force’s effort to reduce discriminatory stops. He supported
the policy. Tampa Police Chief Mary O’Connor, who replaced Del-
gado, appreciated being informed of the policy but offered no sug-
gestions.
Neither the Low-Level Offense Policy nor the Bike Policy
precluded prosecutors from exercising individualized discretion.
Although the policies created presumptions, they specified that a
case’s circumstances could overcome those presumptions.
2. Warren’s Advocacy
Besides instituting policies consistent with criminal justice
reform, Warren advocated for it. His advocacy included signing
four statements that the nonprofit organization Fair and Just Pros-
ecution (“FJP”) authored and published. These advocacy state-
ments addressed capital punishment, election security, transgender
care, and abortion. Because DeSantis cited the transgender care
and abortion statements as justification for Warren’s suspension,
we describe those statements in detail.
In the summer of 2021, Warren signed an FJP statement ex-
pressing concern about “bills targeting the transgender commu-
nity,” especially transgender youth’s access to gender-affirming
care. Doc. 112-4 at 1. Citing research linking gender-affirming care
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 8 of 59
8 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
to reduced suicide risk in youth, the statement concluded that the
bills harmed “the health of trans youth.” Id. at 2. The signatories
“pledge[d] to use [their] settled discretion and limited resources on
enforcement of laws that will not erode the safety and well-being
of [their] community.” Id. at 3.
A year later, Warren joined nearly 70 elected prosecutors na-
tionwide in signing an FJP statement addressing the criminalization
of abortion after the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson
Women’s Health Organization, 142 S. Ct. 2228 (2022). Published the
same day as Dobbs, the statement expressed “that prosecutors have
a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system
resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.” Doc. 112-5 at
1. It stressed elected prosecutors’ obligation to exercise discretion:
“our communities have entrusted us to use our best judgment in
deciding how and if to leverage the criminal legal system to further
the safety and well-being of all, and we are ethically bound to pur-
sue those interests in every case.” Id. Signatories “commit[ted] to
exercise [their] well-settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting
those who seek, provide, or support abortions.” Id.
Warren signed both statements with his title: “Andrew War-
ren[,] State Attorney, 13th Judicial Circuit (Tampa), Florida.”
Doc. 112-4 at 8; Doc. 112-5 at 8. Neither statement became policy,
however. The executive committee never discussed them. Warren
neither distributed the statements nor included them in materials
provided to prosecutors. The office never trained prosecutors on
them.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 9 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 9
And neither statement referred to a specific Florida law. To
the contrary, the statements, which addressed national audiences,
contained language inapplicable to Florida. When Warren signed
the statement about bills targeting the transgender community, no
Florida law criminalized gender-affirming care.
When he signed the abortion statement, a Florida law, HB 5,
criminalized abortion after 15 weeks. A few days after FJP pub-
lished the abortion statement, Warren clarified his position on
HB 5 in a television interview. He announced that although he dis-
agreed with HB 5, he would respect court rulings on its legality. He
stressed that prosecution decisions in every case, including abor-
tion-related cases, would depend on the case’s facts.
B. DeSantis’s Actions
We turn now to DeSantis’s decision to suspend Warren.
Eight months before the suspension, DeSantis asked Larry Keefe, a
senior advisor, whether any Florida prosecutors “were not enforc-
ing the law.” Doc. 138 at 201. Keefe assured DeSantis that he would
ask around. We detail Keefe’s inquiry and what it revealed about
Warren before discussing DeSantis’s decision to suspend Warren.
1. Keefe’s Inquiry
Keefe spoke to his own acquaintances, gathering their im-
pressions of state attorneys. He disclaimed that he investigated. Id.
at 203 (“Once again, I did not conduct an investigation.”). He char-
acterized his role, instead, as determining “whether there was the
impression or belief in the law enforcement community that there
were one or more [s]tate [a]ttorneys who were not enforcing the
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 10 of 59
10 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
law.” Id. When Keefe communicated with his contacts, he focused
on state attorneys’ reputations, not their policies or prosecution de-
cisions. Keefe avoided getting “into particularity in regard to spe-
cific examples or specific instances” of nonenforcement. Doc. 141
at 43. His inquiry “was more general”—“reputational.” Id. He took
no notes.
Keefe talked with Steve Casey, who directed the Florida
Sheriffs Association. Casey told Keefe that, according to the law
enforcement community, Warren was a reform prosecutor. 2 Casey
said the community regarded Warren “as a [s]tate [a]ttorney whose
approach to his job was harmful, was negative.” Doc. 138 at 207.
Warren had a “reputation as being a [s]tate [a]ttorney who was hos-
tile and antagonistic to law enforcement.” Id. at 208. Casey admit-
ted that he based his observations on what he heard from others,
not on firsthand knowledge of Warren or Warren’s performance.
He cited no laws that Warren’s office underenforced and identified
no office policies. Yet he thought Warren’s approach “imped[ed]”
law enforcement’s mission. Id.
After speaking with Casey, Keefe reached out to other law
enforcement community members, who expressed similar con-
cerns. Keefe sensed that the community perceived Warren’s “ap-
proach, his mindset, [and] the culture of his office with regard to
2 “Reform prosecutor” is imperfect shorthand for a prosecutor whose ap-
proach emphasizes criminal justice reform. The term may be understood to
contrast with “law-and-order prosecutor.” As the district court observed, ei-
ther shorthand “is likely to be misleading on any specific issue.” Doc. 150 at 6.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 11 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 11
law enforcement [to be] creating an environment of chaos, lawless-
ness, and disruption.” Id. at 217. Despite holding strong views,
these officials identified no actions that Warren had taken or failed
to take as state attorney. Nor did they cite any laws that Warren
underenforced.
When Keefe asked Orange County Sheriff John Mina, for ex-
ample, whether he knew any state attorneys who “don’t enforce
the law,” Mina mentioned Warren and Monique Worrell, the state
attorney for the Ninth Judicial Circuit, which encompasses Orange
County, whose seat is Orlando. Doc. 141 at 20. Mina called both
“progressive prosecutors.” Id. at 21. He told Keefe that being “a law
enforcement sheriff is very difficult” in Worrell’s environment. Id.
Mina reported that, “reputationally,” Warren shared Worrell’s
“mindset” and “approach.” Id.
At this point, Keefe concluded that “all roads [led] to Tampa,
Hillsborough County, the Thirteenth Circuit, and Mr. Warren.”
Doc. 138 at 218. So he focused on Warren and, for the first time,
reached out to law enforcement officials in Hillsborough County.
Keefe contacted Chronister, the Hillsborough County sheriff, who
told him that his department struggled to get certain cases prose-
cuted. Chronister compiled cases he thought Warren should have
prosecuted more aggressively and forwarded them to Keefe, along
with additional materials, such as Warren’s policies and articles
about his office. The policies included the Discretion Policy, the
Low-Level Offense Policy, and the Bike Policy. Keefe reviewed the
materials. But he never followed up with Warren on the cases
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 12 of 59
12 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
Chronister identified or learned how Warren’s office implemented
the policies.
Keefe then spoke with Brian Dugan, a former Tampa police
chief. Dugan expressed frustration with Warren’s approach. He
criticized the Bike Policy, which Warren implemented after Dugan
retired. Keefe never spoke to the current Tampa police chief, Mary
O’Connor, or her immediate predecessor, Ruben Delgado—the
two law enforcement leaders whom Warren consulted before fi-
nalizing the Bike Policy.
During his inquiry, Keefe found online the four advocacy
statements that FJP had published and Warren had signed—regard-
ing transgender care and abortion, as well as election security and
capital punishment. Keefe never looked to see whether Warren’s
office had adopted these statements as policy. It had not. He never
determined whether Warren’s office had encountered a case about
transgender care or abortion. It had not.
Keefe’s search also revealed an article about Democratic bil-
lionaire George Soros’s financial support of “progressive prosecu-
tors.” Doc. 141 at 15. The article noted that Soros had donated to
the Florida Democratic Party, which in turn contributed to War-
ren’s campaign. Based on this fact and his other research, Keefe
concluded that Warren “had ceded his power and authority as the
[s]tate [a]ttorney in Tampa to be an expresser or a conduit for Mr.
Soros’s world views on criminal prosecution.” Id. at 16.
During his inquiry, Keefe never communicated with War-
ren or anyone in his office. He spoke to only two people who knew
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 13 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 13
anything about how Warren’s office operated: Chronister and
Dugan. They told him about Warren’s prosecutorial decisions, but
Keefe never focused on those decisions. He concerned himself in-
stead with the advocacy statements Warren had signed.
2. Warren’s Suspension
After conducting this inquiry, Keefe looped in DeSantis’s
lawyers about suspending Warren. About two weeks before the
suspension, Keefe presented the information he had collected
about Warren to Ryan Newman, DeSantis’s general counsel, and
Raymond Treadwell, a deputy general counsel. Keefe left it to the
general counsel’s office to “zero in on the particular statutory sec-
tions” not being enforced and to investigate how Warren’s policies
played “out in the field.” Doc. 138 at 234.
Keefe forwarded a news article about the FJP abortion state-
ment to Newman’s office. Joshua Pratt, a deputy general counsel,
asked whether the language in the statement referred to pre-Dobbs
restrictions, such as on third trimester abortions. Newman re-
sponded, “Perhaps we should send a letter inquiring.” Doc. 112-33
at 1. No one ever did.
Eager to move the suspension along, Keefe drafted an exec-
utive order suspending Warren under Florida’s constitutional pro-
vision that permits the governor to suspend a state attorney for ne-
glect of duty or incompetence. See Fla. Const. art. IV, § 7(a). His
first draft cited only the abortion statement, calling it a “blanket
policy” to “exercise no discretion at all” in abortion cases. Doc. 112-
28 at 4.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 14 of 59
14 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
His second draft included three advocacy statements: on
abortion, transgender care, and capital punishment. His third
added the advocacy statement on elections issues. It cited the ad-
vocacy statements as evidence that Warren refused “to exercise
prosecutorial discretion on a case-by-case basis,” constituting “ne-
glect of duty in violation of his oath of office.” Doc. 112-12 at 4. It
also asserted that Warren had “publicly declared functional vetoes
of other existing and potential future Florida laws and publicly an-
nounced his blanket refusal to enforce those laws.” Id.
Keefe’s third draft also introduced five paragraphs describing
Warren’s affiliation with Soros and the Democratic Party. Those
paragraphs exclaimed that Warren “ceded the authority of the Of-
fice of State Attorney” and “subordinated the people of the 13th
Judicial Circuit” to “entities associated with activist George Soros.”
Id. at 9.
Keefe shared these drafts with Newman and Treadwell.
With DeSantis’s go-ahead, the lawyers revised Keefe’s draft, at-
tempting to ensure that it would pass legal scrutiny.
Based on case law from the Florida Supreme Court, see
Ayala v. Scott, 224 So. 3d 755 (Fla. 2017), 3 the lawyers emphasized
3 In Ayala, the Florida Supreme Court concluded that Florida Governor Rick
Scott did not exceed his authority when he reassigned State Attorney Aramis
Donnell Ayala’s death-penalty eligible cases away from her. 224 So. 3d at 759–
60. The Court emphasized that Ayala intended to implement a blanket policy
not to seek the death penalty, “in effect refusing to exercise discretion.” Id. at
758 (internal quotation marks omitted).
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 15 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 15
Warren’s “blanket” nonprosecution policies, asserting that those
policies constituted “incompetence” and “neglect of duty” under
Florida’s constitution. Doc. 112-26 at 1–3, 5–7. They wanted to
scrub from the draft the references to Soros and the Democratic
Party but suggested that the references stay in the “political narra-
tive.” Id. at 6. They also added the Low-Level Offense Policy and
the Bike Policy, as well as an argument that the abortion statement
alone sufficiently justified the suspension.
During the drafting, the lawyers added a paragraph noting
Warren’s statements on television that he would make an individ-
ualized decision about every abortion case. But they never ex-
plained how those statements fit into Warren’s “blanket” policy
against prosecuting abortion cases. They ultimately removed from
the final order the reference to Warren’s interview statements that
he would exercise individualized discretion in every case.
DeSantis edited the executive order. He then issued the final
version suspending Warren on August 4, 2022. The order stated
that Warren instituted blanket nonprosecution policies, constitut-
ing grounds for suspension under the Florida Constitution and
Florida Supreme Court case law. It cited the transgender care and
abortion statements. And it identified the Low-Level Offense Pol-
icy and the Bike Policy—the only Thirteenth Judicial Circuit poli-
cies the executive order mentioned.
Later that day, DeSantis announced his decision at a press
conference in Tampa. He told the press that his office “spoke with
line prosecutors throughout the state” and that the suspension
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 16 of 59
16 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
resulted from a “statewide review.” Doc. 142-13 at 4, 32. That
night, DeSantis appeared on national television, talking with tele-
vision host Tucker Carlson about the suspension. He reiterated his
declaration that his staff “review[ed] all state attorneys” in Florida
and spoke with prosecutors throughout the state, including in War-
ren’s office. Doc. 142-14 at 3. Yet no one in DeSantis’s office or
working on its behalf reviewed all state attorneys. No one spoke to
prosecutors in Warren’s office.
DeSantis appointed Susan Lopez to replace Warren. Lopez
had served as an assistant state attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial
Circuit from 2005 until 2021, when DeSantis appointed her to a
judgeship. She resigned from the bench to become acting state at-
torney at DeSantis’s behest. Upon taking office, Lopez immedi-
ately rescinded the Low-Level Offense Policy and the Bike Policy.
C. The Proceedings Below
After his suspension, Warren filed this lawsuit. He sued un-
der 42 U.S.C. § 1983, alleging that DeSantis suspended him in retal-
iation for exercising his right to free speech under the First Amend-
ment. He asked the court to declare the suspension unconstitu-
tional and require that DeSantis reinstate him.
Along with his complaint, Warren filed a motion for a pre-
liminary injunction directing DeSantis to reinstate him. DeSantis
opposed the preliminary injunction and moved to dismiss War-
ren’s claims. The district court denied the preliminary injunction
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 17 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 17
motion, dismissed Warren’s state law claim, and denied the motion
to dismiss Warren’s federal claim. 4
The district court then held a bench trial. At trial, Warren
sought to prove that his views on issues such as abortion,
transgender care, and criminal justice reform motivated DeSantis’s
decision. He presented evidence that DeSantis was motivated not
by any alleged “blanket” nonprosecution policies but by political
disagreement with Warren’s political affiliations and advocacy. He
proceeded on the theory that DeSantis targeted Warren because of
his political views and actions, seeking out a “woke” or “leftist”
prosecutor. Doc. 138 at 13, 16.
DeSantis maintained that he suspended Warren for War-
ren’s failure to exercise individualized discretion and refusal to
prosecute certain cases. DeSantis contended that the abortion
statement, along with the transgender care statement, the Low-
Level Offense Policy, and the Bike Policy, showed that Warren had
refused to prosecute certain cases.
Following the trial, the district court evaluated whether De-
Santis engaged in unlawful retaliation under the First Amendment,
using the framework from Mount Healthy City School District Board
of Education v. Doyle, 429 U.S. 274 (1977). This framework placed
the initial burden on Warren to show that activity protected by the
4 The district court dismissed Warren’s state law claim under the Eleventh
Amendment. See Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 121
(1984). Warren does not appeal that dismissal.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 18 of 59
18 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause motivated DeSantis’s deci-
sion to suspend him.
Warren met his burden, the district court determined. War-
ren’s burden was to show (1) activity protected by the First Amend-
ment, (2) an adverse action, and (3) a causal connection between
the protected activity and the adverse action. The court explained
that the First Amendment protected Warren’s political affiliations
and his advocacy. It concluded that Warren’s suspension qualified
as an adverse action. And it found that Warren’s affiliations and
advocacy motivated DeSantis’s decision to suspend him. Because
Warren carried his burden under Mount Healthy, the burden shifted
to DeSantis.
Under Mount Healthy, the district court explained, DeSantis
could not be liable for retaliation if he proved that he would have
made the same decision regardless of protected activity. The dis-
trict court began this inquiry by teasing out the six factors that mo-
tivated DeSantis to suspend Warren: (1) Warren’s political affilia-
tions with the Democratic Party and George Soros; (2) Warren’s
criminal justice reform advocacy, including the advocacy state-
ments he signed; (3) a single sentence in the abortion statement
committing to refrain from prosecuting abortion cases; (4) War-
ren’s adoption of the Low-Level Offense Policy and the Bike Pol-
icy; (5) Warren’s approach and performance as a reform prosecu-
tor; and (6) DeSantis’s anticipated political benefit from suspending
a progressive prosecutor.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 19 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 19
The district court then separated the factors based on pro-
tected activity from those based on unprotected activity. The court
concluded that the First Amendment protected only Warren’s po-
litical affiliation and his advocacy. It ruled the First Amendment left
the activities underlying the other four factors unprotected.
After separating the factors, the district court addressed
whether DeSantis would have terminated Warren based solely on
the unprotected activity. The issue turned on DeSantis’s actual mo-
tivation. Although the district court found that Warren’s advocacy
and political associations contributed to his suspension, “bringing
down a reform prosecutor” and the resulting political benefit were
the “controlling motivations for the suspension.” Doc. 150 at 57.
To arrive at this finding, the district court considered Keefe’s
inquiry. It found that Keefe never tried to understand how War-
ren’s office implemented the presumptive nonprosecution policies.
Keefe likewise never tried to comprehend what impact, if any, the
advocacy statements had on the office’s practices. According to the
district court, “Mr. Keefe did not look into these things because he
already knew all he needed to know: Mr. Warren was the leading
Florida reform prosecutor.” Id. at 55. “Mr. Keefe was determined
to bring about Mr. Warren’s suspension,” the court explained. Id.
at 20. “He wanted it to happen primarily because Mr. Warren was
a reform prosecutor of the kind” that DeSantis and Keefe “tar-
geted . . . from the outset.” Id.
The district court found that the other factors were “pretext
to justify the suspension under the Florida Constitution.” Id. at 58.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 20 of 59
20 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
The court found that DeSantis’s lawyers needed something they
could credibly label a blanket nonprosecution policy to be comfort-
able signing off on the suspension. So they said that the Low-Level
Offense Policy and the Bike Policy motivated Warren’s suspension.
These policies, along with the one sentence in the abortion state-
ment, provided credible cover to move the suspension forward, the
district court found. But “[t]he actual facts—whether Mr. Warren
actually had any blanket nonprosecution policies—did not matter.”
Id. at 57–58.
Despite the pretext, the district court concluded that DeSan-
tis would have suspended Warren based on his performance and
DeSantis’s anticipated political benefit—two activities it thought
the First Amendment left unprotected. It thus ruled against War-
ren, denying injunctive relief. 5 Warren appealed.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
We review a district court’s denial of a permanent injunc-
tion for an abuse of discretion. Common Cause/Ga. v. Billups,
554 F.3d 1340, 1349 (11th Cir. 2009). We review the court’s legal
conclusions de novo and its factual findings for clear error. Id.
The First Amendment context complicates our application
of this standard, however. “Where the First Amendment Free
5 Warren argues that the district court erred in ruling that the Eleventh
Amendment precluded it from remedying a First Amendment violation. We
disagree with Warren’s characterization. The district court rejected his First
Amendment claim on the merits after concluding that Warren would have
been suspended even absent his protected activity.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 21 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 21
Speech Clause is involved,” we review “constitutional facts” de
novo. ACLU of Fla., Inc. v. Miami-Dade Cnty. Sch. Bd., 557 F.3d 1177,
1203 (11th Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). We re-
view “historical facts” for clear error. Id. And because we are in the
First Amendment retaliation context, we note two considerations
related to employer motivations and protected activity.
First, in the First Amendment retaliation context, we have
not yet decided, in a published opinion, whether our review of a
factual finding about what motivated an employer to take an ad-
verse employment action is de novo or for clear error. Id. at 1203–
04 (acknowledging uncertainty about the standard of review).
Here, though, because our conclusion would be the same under
either standard, we assume without deciding that clear error ap-
plies to the district court’s factual findings about DeSantis’s mo-
tives.
Second, whether the First Amendment protects a particular
activity is neither a constitutional nor a historical fact. It remains a
question of law, reviewed de novo. Beckwith v. Daytona Beach Shores,
58 F.3d 1554, 1560 (11th Cir. 1995); see also Hurley v. Irish-Am. Gay,
Lesbian & Bisexual Grp. of Bos., 515 U.S. 557, 567 (1995) (“[W]e must
thus decide for ourselves whether a given course of conduct falls
on the near or far side of the line of constitutional protection.”).
With these considerations in mind, we move to our analysis.
III. DISCUSSION
The “First Amendment prohibits government officials from
subjecting an individual to retaliatory actions for engaging in
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 22 of 59
22 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
protected speech.” Nieves v. Bartlett, 139 S. Ct. 1715, 1722 (2019) (in-
ternal quotation marks omitted). For evaluating First Amendment
retaliation claims, the Supreme Court has adopted a burden-shift-
ing framework. See Mount Healthy, 429 U.S. at 281–86. 6 Under this
framework, a plaintiff must show three elements: (1) he engaged in
protected activity, (2) he suffered an adverse action, and (3) a causal
connection exists between the protected activity and the adverse
action. See Bennett v. Hendrix, 423 F.3d 1247, 1250 (11th Cir. 2005).
If the plaintiff shows all three, then the government official has a
chance to present a “same-decision defense”: to prove that he
would have made the same decision even if the plaintiff never en-
gaged in protected activity. Mount Healthy, 429 U.S. at 287.
Warren argues that DeSantis suspended him for activities
the First Amendment protects. Applying the Mount Healthy frame-
work, we begin in Part A with whether Warren carried his initial
burden and conclude that he engaged in protected activity, suffered
an adverse action, and showed a causal connection between the
two.
We then turn in Part B to DeSantis’s same-decision defense.
The district court found that six factors motivated DeSantis to sus-
pend Warren but concluded that the First Amendment protected
only two of the activities behind those factors—Warren’s political
6 DeSantis argues that in addition to succeeding under Mount Healthy, Warren
must make a “threshold showing” that DeSantis lacked probable cause to sus-
pend him. Appellee’s Br. at 26 (internal quotation marks omitted). We address
this argument below in Part III-C.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 23 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 23
affiliations and his advocacy. The court concluded that the First
Amendment left unprotected the other four—Warren’s perfor-
mance in office, the sentence in the abortion statement he signed,
two of his office policies, and DeSantis’s anticipated political bene-
fit. The district court then determined that DeSantis would have
made the same decision without the two protected activities.
We conclude that the district court erred in two ways: first,
in concluding that the First Amendment did not protect Warren’s
support of a sentence in the advocacy statement about prosecuting
abortion cases, and second, in concluding that the First Amend-
ment did not preclude DeSantis from suspending Warren to gain
political benefit from bringing down a reform prosecutor. We
therefore remand for the district court to reconsider whether De-
Santis would have made the same decision based solely on War-
ren’s performance and the two office policies.
After addressing the same-decision defense, we discuss in
Part C DeSantis’s argument that Warren had to make a threshold
showing that DeSantis lacked probable cause. We need not decide
whether that showing is necessary, though, because DeSantis
never had probable cause for Warren’s suspension.
A. Warren’s Initial Burden
Although Warren must satisfy three prongs under the Mount
Healthy framework, this appeal turns only on the first prong, pro-
tected activity. He satisfied the second prong; his suspension con-
stituted a materially adverse action. Hous. Cmty. Coll. Sys. v. Wilson,
595 U.S. 468, 477 (2022) (“Some adverse actions may be easy to
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 24 of 59
24 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
identify—an arrest, a prosecution, or a dismissal from governmen-
tal employment.”). And if Warren proved that the First Amend-
ment protected the activities DeSantis cited in the executive order
suspending him, he satisfied the third prong. The third prong asks
whether constitutionally protected activity “was a ‘motivating fac-
tor’” in DeSantis’s decision. Mount Healthy, 429 U.S. at 287. DeSan-
tis maintains that the reasons cited in the executive order moti-
vated him to suspend Warren. The executive order cited the
transgender care and abortion advocacy statements Warren
signed. So, although DeSantis has a chance to show that he would
have made the same decision even without those statements, to
have carried his burden Warren needed to show only that the state-
ments played a role in DeSantis’s decision. Id. Because DeSantis
concedes that the statements motivated him, the third prong is sat-
isfied as well. We therefore focus on the first prong: whether the
First Amendment protects those statements.
The First Amendment protects Warren’s signing the
transgender care and abortion statements. It prevents the govern-
ment from “abridging the freedom of speech.” U.S. Const.
amend. I. Warren engaged in speech when he signed the state-
ments. Indeed, the statements go beyond regular speech; they are
“chock full of core political speech.” Doc. 150 at 36. FJP specifically
designed them, and Warren signed them, “to bring[] about . . . po-
litical and social changes.” Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 484
(1957). DeSantis never contends that the two statements are not
speech. Thus, the statements presumptively have the First Amend-
ment’s “full protection” unless they fall within a specific
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 25 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 25
unprotected category. Id.; see also United States v. Stevens, 559 U.S.
460, 468–69 (2010).
DeSantis argues that Warren’s signing the statements falls
within two unprotected categories. First, he contends that Warren
engaged in unprotected government speech when he signed the
statements. And second, he argues that Warren’s actions were un-
protected because signing the statements impeded Warren’s per-
formance as state attorney. We address each argument in turn.
1. Signing the Statements Was Not Government
Speech.
The First Amendment protects Warren’s signing the state-
ments notwithstanding the government-speech doctrine the Su-
preme Court articulated in Garcetti v. Ceballos, 547 U.S. 410 (2006).
This doctrine established that “[w]hen a citizen enters government
service, the citizen by necessity must accept certain limitations on
his or her freedom.” Id. at 418. So although the First Amendment
protects citizen speech, id. at 419, it does not “shield[] from disci-
pline the expressions employees make pursuant to their profes-
sional duties,” id. at 426. In other words, “the Constitution does not
insulate” government speech from employer discipline. Id. at 421.
We reject DeSantis’s government-speech argument. On the
one hand, Garcetti’s application to elected officials seems suspect.
On the other—controlling—hand, even if we apply Garcetti to
Warren, the First Amendment still protects Warren’s signing the
statements.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 26 of 59
26 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
A refresher on Garcetti frames our analysis. In Garcetti, the
Supreme Court considered Deputy District Attorney Richard Ce-
ballos’s claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 that District Attorney Garcetti
and his staff retaliated against Ceballos for his speech, violating his
First Amendment rights. Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 413–15.
Ceballos had disagreed with his supervisors about the valid-
ity of an affidavit supporting a search warrant. Id. at 413–14. Ce-
ballos wrote two memos questioning the affidavit’s quality. Id. at
414. He wanted the criminal case based on the search dismissed.Id.
When the defendant challenged the search warrant, Ceballos testi-
fied for the defense. Id. at 414–15. But the trial court rejected the
challenge. Id. at 415.
After the warrant fiasco, Ceballos sued under 42 U.S.C.
§ 1983, claiming that the district attorney’s office violated his free
speech rights. Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 415. In support of his claim, he
alleged that, based on his activities surrounding the warrant, the
office reassigned him to a trial deputy position. Id. He also alleged
that it transferred him to another courthouse and denied him a pro-
motion. Id.
The Supreme Court ruled against Ceballos. Id. at 426. The
Court first explained that “public employees do not surrender all
their First Amendment rights by reason of their employment.” Id.
at 417. They can still speak “as a citizen on a matter of public con-
cern.” Id. If they do, the government may only impose “speech re-
strictions that are necessary” to “operate efficiently and effec-
tively.” Id. at 419.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 27 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 27
Applying those principles to Ceballos’s case, the Supreme
Court concluded that he had not spoken as a citizen for First
Amendment purposes. Id. at 421. Rather, he had written the
memos “pursuant to [his] official duties,” and his employers there-
fore could discipline him for them without implicating the First
Amendment. Id.
Unlike Warren, Ceballos was not an elected official. The Su-
preme Court has never applied Garcetti to elected officials. Nor
have we. As a matter of first impression, Garcetti’s application to
elected officials seems suspect for two reasons.
First, Garcetti’s rationale makes little sense for elected offi-
cials. The Supreme Court was concerned in Garcetti with ensuring
that government employers could supervise employees without
the employees constitutionalizing every grievance. Id. at 422–23.
Government employers, “like private employers, need a significant
degree of control over their employees’ words and actions.” Id. at
418.
But often, elected officials do not exercise a significant de-
gree of control over other elected officials. Rather, the electorate
controls elected officials and disciplines them by withholding votes
if it disapproves of their performance. Consider federal legislators.
Some federal legislators are senior to others. Federal legislators
have the power to censure and expel fellow legislators. U.S. Const.
art. I, § 5, cl. 2. But one legislator cannot control or manage an-
other. Each legislator’s constituency does that.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 28 of 59
28 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
Florida’s constitution and case law recognize that governors
do not exercise a significant degree of control over state attorneys.
True, DeSantis, as the state’s chief executive, exercises some over-
sight over state attorneys. But DeSantis cannot remove a state at-
torney. Fla. Const. art. IV, § 7(b). He can suspend a state attorney
only on specified grounds. Id. § 7(a). And some authorized over-
sight actions, like reassigning state attorneys, are subject to time
limitations “to prevent [the governor] from frustrating the will of
the voters . . . by replacing any elected state attorney with one” he
chooses. Finch v. Fitzpatrick, 254 So. 2d 203, 205 (Fla. 1971). This
limited managerial role weakens Garcetti’s application to Warren’s
speech.
Second, more apt Supreme Court cases exist. The Court has
crafted a First Amendment doctrine specifically for elected officials’
speech. This doctrine has never relied on, nor even cited, Garcetti.
Wood v. Georgia provides an example. 370 U.S. 375 (1962). There,
James Wood, Bibb County’s elected sheriff, criticized an ongoing
grand jury investigation. Id. at 379. As a result of Wood’s criticism,
a state court convicted him of criminal contempt. Id. at 382–83.
The Supreme Court reversed his conviction, rejecting Geor-
gia’s argument that Wood’s “right to freedom of expression must
be more severely curtailed than that of an average citizen” because
Wood was the elected sheriff. Id. at 393. The Court emphasized
that Wood “was an elected official and had the right to enter the
field of political controversy.” Id. “The role that elected officials
play in our society,” the Court continued, “makes it all the more
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 29 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 29
imperative that they be allowed freely to express themselves.” Id.
at 395. In a footnote, the Court clarified that it was treating Wood
differently from past petitioners because he “was not a civil servant,
but an elected official.” Id. at 395 n.21.
Four years later, the Supreme Court extended Wood’s hold-
ing to legislators. In Bond v. Floyd, the Supreme Court stressed that
the “First Amendment in a representative government requires
that legislators be given the widest latitude to express their views
on issues of policy.” 385 U.S. 116, 136 (1966); see also Republican
Party of Minn. v. White, 536 U.S. 765, 788 (2002) (extending this lat-
itude to judicial candidates).
We remain skeptical about applying Garcetti to elected offi-
cials. But we decline to decide that question because the First
Amendment protects Warren’s signing the statements even if we
assume Garcetti applies. Under Garcetti, Warren must have
“spoke[n] as a citizen on a matter of public concern” to qualify for
First Amendment protection. 547 U.S. at 418. By signing the state-
ments, Warren spoke on a matter of public concern. Transgender
rights and abortion are “subject[s] of general interest and of value
and concern to the public.” Lane v. Franks, 573 U.S. 228, 241 (2014)
(internal quotation marks omitted). We therefore focus our analy-
sis on whether Warren spoke as a citizen or as a government em-
ployee.
To answer this question, we inquire into “whether the
speech at issue ‘owes its existence’ to the employee’s professional
responsibilities.” Moss v. City of Pembroke Pines, 782 F.3d 613, 618
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 30 of 59
30 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
(11th Cir. 2015) (quoting Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 421). The Supreme
Court “declined to provide a ‘comprehensive framework’ for de-
ciding this question.” Id.(quoting Garcetti,547 U.S. at 424
). Like the
Supreme Court, we have declined to outline specific criteria for this
analysis. Instead, our past cases have suggested factors to consider.
Some cases have looked at three factors: “the employee’s job
description, whether the speech occurred at the workplace, and
whether the speech concerned the subject matter of the em-
ployee’s job.” Alves v. Bd. of Regents of the Univ. Sys. of Ga., 804 F.3d
1149, 1161(11th Cir. 2015); see also Moss,782 F.3d at 618
. Other
cases recharacterized those three factors as five considerations:
whether a public employee was “(1) speaking with the objective of
advancing official duties; (2) harnessing workplace resources;
(3) projecting official authority; (4) heeding official directives; and
(5) observing formal workplace hierarchies.” Fernandez v. Sch. Bd.
of Miami-Dade Cnty., 898 F.3d 1324, 1332 (11th Cir. 2018).
The various formulations of these nondispositive factors un-
derscores that Garcetti demands a practical inquiry. 547 U.S. at 424.
The “controlling factor” remains whether the statements were
made under Warren’s “official duties.” Id. at 421. When we analyze
the facts here, three factors lead us to conclude that Warren did not
sign the statements under his official duties.
The first factor is the nature of Warren’s job and whether he
spoke to advance official duties. Warren’s job description comes
from the Florida Constitution and Florida general law. The Florida
Constitution assigns state attorneys the duty to prosecute cases in
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 31 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 31
all trial courts in their circuit. Fla. Const. art. V, § 17. It also requires
state attorneys to “perform other duties prescribed by general
law.” Id. General law requires state attorneys to appear in court
“and prosecute or defend on behalf of the state all suits.” Fla. Stat.
§ 27.02. It charges them with attending grand juries, whenever re-
quired. Id. § 27.03. It mandates that they “represent the state in all
cases of habeas corpus.” Id. § 27.06. It imposes various other duties
on them as well. See generally id. § 27.
Neither Florida’s constitution nor other Florida law requires
Warren to sign advocacy statements. We acknowledge that, as the
Supreme Court observed in Garcetti, “[f]ormal job descriptions of-
ten bear little resemblance to the duties an employee actually is ex-
pected to perform.” 547 U.S. at 424–25. No evidence, however, sug-
gests that Warren is expected to sign, or not sign, advocacy state-
ments.
And DeSantis cites no authority dictating that the advocacy
statements “owe [their] existence to [Warren’s] professional re-
sponsibilities.” Id. at 421. He instead provides examples in which
Warren and other state attorneys announced their prosecutorial
priorities. But for Garcetti to apply, Warren must have “only
spoke[n] about this issue because his job required him to speak
about it.” King v. Bd. of Cnty. Comm’rs, 916 F.3d 1339, 1346 (11th Cir.
2019); see also Lane, 573 U.S. at 240 (“The critical question under
Garcetti is whether the speech at issue is itself ordinarily within the
scope of an employee’s duties, not whether it merely concerns
those duties.”). His job entails no such requirement.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 32 of 59
32 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
The second factor is the nature of Warren’s speech and its
relationship to the workplace. Warren’s speech occurred outside
the workplace, and he never distributed the advocacy statements
inside the workplace or included them in internal materials or
training sessions. He employed no workplace resources and never
marshaled the statements through his process for creating policies.
Neither statement referenced any Florida law that would go unen-
forced.
DeSantis argues that because Warren used his official signa-
ture and title, the scales favor concluding that the messages were
“official.” See Garcetti, 547 U.S. at 422 (contrasting message’s forms
to aid in analysis). While our past cases have considered whether
the speech “project[ed] official authority, see Fernandez, 898 F.3d at
1332, we have rejected treating that factor as dispositive, see Leon-
ard v. City of Columbus, 705 F.2d 1299, 1301–03 (11th Cir. 1983)
(holding that the First Amendment protected off-duty police offic-
ers’ speech even when they were in uniform). So has the Supreme
Court. See Wood, 370 U.S. at 394 (rejecting treating a signature and
title as dispositive). Balancing Warren’s use of his title against the
fact that Warren never used workplace resources, heeded official
directives, nor observed workplace hierarchies, we conclude this
factor indicates that Warren spoke as a private citizen.
The third factor is Warren’s status as an elected official. Of-
ten, elected officials speak as representatives of their constituents,
not as “employees of the government.” Boquist v. Courtney, 32 F.4th
764, 779 (9th Cir. 2022). The advocacy statements that Warren
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 33 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 33
signed expressed his views on policy—an action elected officials
have the “widest latitude” to take. Bond, 385 U.S. at 136. Elected
prosecutors, moreover, “are uniquely qualified to comment” on
how prosecutors should exercise their discretion, a matter “con-
cerning government policies that [is] of interest to the public at
large.” City of San Diego v. Roe, 543 U.S. 77, 80 (2004).
Assuming that Garcetti’s government-speech doctrine ap-
plies to elected officials, we conclude that Warren’s speech remains
protected. Any other result would broaden Garcetti’s government-
speech exception. Because that exception “must be read narrowly,”
Alves, 804 F.3d at 1162, we refuse to exempt the statements Warren
signed from First Amendment protection. 7
2. Signing the Statements Did Not Impede Warren’s
Performance as State Attorney.
DeSantis’s second argument is that Warren’s speech im-
peded his performance as state attorney. This argument relies on
7 We reject DeSantis’s alternative method for identifying government speech.
He argues that Warren engaged in government speech under the test applied
in Shurtleff v. City of Boston, 596 U.S. 243, 252 (2022). But that case did not ad-
dress circumstances in which a government actor speaks as a private citizen.
Shurtleff concerned whether the city of Boston reserved a flagpole to com-
municate governmental messages or, instead, “opened the flagpole for citizens
to express their own views.” Id. at 248. It established, then, a “boundary be-
tween government speech and private expression [when] a government in-
vites the people to participate in a program.” Id. at 252. This case presents a
very different scenario, and therefore Shurtleff is inapplicable.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 34 of 59
34 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
the Supreme Court’s opinion in Pickering v. Board of Education,
which held that the First Amendment does not protect a govern-
ment employee’s speech that impedes his job duties. 391 U.S. 563,
572 (1968). We find this argument unconvincing because we doubt
that Pickering applies to elected government officials, but even if it
does apply, its balancing test favors Warren here.
In Pickering, the Supreme Court considered Marvin Picker-
ing’s claim that the Board of Education dismissed him from his
teaching post because of his speech, violating his First Amendment
rights. Id. at 564–65. The Board had submitted a tax increase pro-
posal to voters. Id. at 566. Teachers wrote articles supporting the
tax increase. Id. The superintendent wrote a letter to the local
newspaper supporting the tax increase. Id. Pickering also wrote a
letter to the local newspaper, but he disagreed with the other writ-
ers. Id. He attacked how the Board handled an earlier proposal and
how it allocated financial resources. Id. His letter accused the su-
perintendent of suppressing teachers’ criticism. Id.
After the newspaper ran Pickering’s letter, the Board dis-
missed him. Id. State law required that the board then hold a hear-
ing on the dismissal. Id. During the hearing, the Board said that
Pickering’s false statements besmirched the Board and the school
administration, damaged their professional reputations, would dis-
rupt faculty discipline, and would foster controversy and conflict.
Id. at 566–67. The Board found the statements false and upheld
Pickering’s dismissal. Id. at 567. The Illinois courts reviewed the
proceedings and upheld the Board’s decision. Id.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 35 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 35
The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the First Amend-
ment protected Pickering’s speech because no evidence showed
that he made the false statements knowingly or recklessly. Id. at
574. The Court first explained that the dilemma “in any case is to
arrive at a balance between the interests of the teacher, as a citizen,
in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of
the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public
services it performs through its employees.” Id. at 568.
Applying that principle to Pickering’s case, the Supreme
Court considered Pickering’s interest in sharing “informed and def-
inite opinions” about school funding, “a matter of legitimate public
concern.” Id. at 571–72. It balanced that interest against the Board’s
interest. The Board never showed that the letter impeded Picker-
ing’s performance or interfered with school operations. Id. at 572–
73. Its only remaining interest was “limiting [his] opportunities to
contribute to public debate.” Id. at 573. The Supreme Court found
that unconvincing, and Pickering’s interest prevailed. Id.
For years after Pickering, courts applied it to determine gov-
ernment employees’ free speech rights. Now, we resort to Picker-
ing’s balancing test only after deciding that Garcetti’s government-
speech doctrine is inapplicable. See Fernandez, 898 F.3d at 1329. Our
skepticism about applying Garcetti to elected officials extends to ap-
plying Pickering to elected officials.
The rationale undergirding Pickering does not support its ap-
plication to elected officials. As we explained above, DeSantis does
not manage Warren as a traditional employer would. When “the
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 36 of 59
36 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
State is not acting in a traditional employer role,” “the Pickering test
is inapplicable.” Harris v. Quinn, 573 U.S. 616, 652 (2014). Every
other circuit to have considered this issue has applied the Supreme
Court’s guidance in Harris and excluded elected officials from Pick-
ering balancing. See Boquist, 32 F.4th at 780 (concluding that “the
Pickering balancing test [does not] apply to an elected official’s claim
of First Amendment retaliation”); Phelan v. Laramie Cnty. Cmty. Coll.
Bd. of Trs., 235 F.3d 1243, 1247 (10th Cir. 2000) (concluding that “the
Pickering approach does not apply” in part because the plaintiff was
an “elected public official[]”); Jenevein v. Willing, 493 F.3d 551, 558
(5th Cir. 2007) (concluding that Pickering is inapplicable “for sorting
the free speech rights of employees elected to state office”).
Today, we decline to go that far because if we apply Picker-
ing, the First Amendment still protects Warren’s activity. No evi-
dence suggests that the statements “impede[d] the government’s
ability to perform its duties efficiently.” See Morales v. Stierheim,
848 F.2d 1145, 1149–50 (11th Cir. 1988) (determining that the gov-
ernment’s interest outweighed the employee’s interest when
speech destroyed working relationships and “thwarted” the office’s
mission). Nor does any evidence suggest that the statements’ time,
place, manner, or context disrupted Warren’s office. See id. at 1149.
DeSantis reasserts that Warren “shirked his obligations [and]
barred line prosecutors from fulfilling their own.” Appellee’s Br. at
44. The record contradicts this, however. It shows the statements
had no effect on the office’s functions. As the district court ex-
plained, Warren neither distributed the statements to prosecutors
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 37 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 37
nor included them in training materials. His office also never en-
countered a transgender care or abortion-related case. Thus, War-
ren’s interest outweighs the government’s under Pickering’s analy-
sis.
* * *
Let us take stock. Warren carried his burden. He had to
prove that he engaged in protected activity, he suffered an adverse
action, and his protected activity motivated the adverse action. The
First Amendment protects his signing the transgender care and
abortion statements. Neither Garcetti’s government-speech doc-
trine nor Pickering’s balancing approach strips Warren’s actions of
First Amendment protection. Warren therefore engaged in pro-
tected activity. DeSantis suspended him, constituting an adverse
action. And the transgender care and abortion statements—pro-
tected activity—motivated DeSantis to suspend Warren.
B. DeSantis’s Same-Decision Defense
Once Warren carried his burden, Mount Healthy shifted the
burden to DeSantis. 429 U.S. at 287. DeSantis had the opportunity
to prove that he would have made the same decision without con-
sidering the protected activity. See id. This affirmative defense re-
quired DeSantis to prove that legitimate reasons motived his deci-
sion. See Stanley v. City of Dalton, 219 F.3d 1280, 1296 & n.27 (11th
Cir. 2000).
To review, the district court found that six factors motivated
DeSantis to suspend Warren: (1) Warren’s political affiliation;
(2) Warren’s advocacy; (3) Warren’s agreement with a sentence in
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 38 of 59
38 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
the abortion statement “commit[ting] to exercise [his] well-settled
discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide,
or support abortions,” Doc. 112-5 at 1; (4) Warren’s adoption of the
Low-Level Offense Policy and the Bike Policy; (5) Warren’s perfor-
mance as a reform prosecutor; and (6) the political benefit DeSantis
would derive from suspending a reform prosecutor. 8 The district
court then concluded that the First Amendment protected War-
ren’s political affiliations and his advocacy, which provided the ba-
sis for factors one and two. It decided the First Amendment did not
protect the rest of the activities, which provided the basis for fac-
tors three through six.
We discuss only three factors here. In explaining above how
the First Amendment protects Warren’s political advocacy, includ-
ing the advocacy statements, we have already addressed the second
factor. And Warren does not contest the district court’s conclusion
that the First Amendment does not cover the fourth factor, his
adoption of the Low-Level Offense Policy and the Bike Policy, or
the fifth factor, his performance as a reform prosecutor. We
8 Warren argues that the district court erred by sua sponte attributing motives
to DeSantis, thereby depriving Warren of notice and the opportunity to refute
those motivations at trial. We cannot agree. DeSantis’s Answer and his staff’s
assertions provided Warren with sufficient notice that the motivations relating
to his Low-Level Offense Policy, Bike Policy, and performance were at issue.
See Chambless v. La.-Pac. Corp., 481 F.3d 1345, 1349 (11th Cir. 2007). Warren
also argued and presented evidence supporting the district court’s findings that
Warren’s political affiliations, Warren’s advocacy, and DeSantis’s anticipated
political benefit motivated DeSantis.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 39 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 39
proceed now to factors one, three, and six and explain how the First
Amendment protects the activity behind each factor.
1. The First Amendment Protects Warren’s Political Af-
filiations.
The district court concluded that the First Amendment pro-
tects Warren’s political affiliations. We agree. The First Amend-
ment protects government employees from adverse employment
actions based on partisan considerations. See Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S.
347, 360(1976) (plurality opinion); Branti v. Finkel,445 U.S. 507, 517
(1980). The Supreme Court has carved out an exception for “poli-
cymaking” employees whose “private political beliefs would inter-
fere with the discharge of [their] public duties.” Branti, 445 U.S. at
517. But whether the “policymaker” label “fits a particular posi-
tion” is not “the ultimate inquiry”; “rather, the question is whether
the hiring authority can demonstrate that party affiliation is an ap-
propriate requirement for the effective performance of the public
office involved.” Id. at 518.
The policymaker exception does not apply here. The excep-
tion exists because a hiring authority “may appropriately believe
that the official duties of various assistants who help him write
speeches, explain his views to the press, or communicate with the
legislature cannot be performed effectively unless those persons
share his political beliefs and party commitments.” Id. No such con-
cern exists with an independently elected state attorney, whom the
Hillsborough County voters selected to serve their interests—not
DeSantis’s.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 40 of 59
40 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
DeSantis, though, maintains that the policymaker exception
applies. But every case on which he relies applies the exception in
a lawsuit between a hiring officer or authority, on the one hand,
and a hired person, on the other. Here, we have two elected offi-
cials.
Our sister circuit explained it well: “Elections mean some-
thing. Majorities bestow mandates. Elected prosecutors translate
those mandates into policies.” Borzilleri v. Mosby, 874 F.3d 187, 192
(4th Cir. 2017). Voters elected Warren; DeSantis did not appoint
him. If alignment with DeSantis’s political preferences were an ap-
propriate requirement to perform the state attorney’s duties, there
would be little point in local elections open to candidates across the
political spectrum. The rationale for the policymaker exception
simply does not apply here. The First Amendment thus protects
Warren’s political affiliations.
2. The First Amendment Protects the Sentence in the
Abortion Statement.
The district court singled out a sentence in the abortion
statement, classifying it as unprotected conduct. In this sentence,
the statement’s signatories “commit[ted] to exercise [their] well-
settled discretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek,
provide, or support abortions.” Doc. 112-5 at 1. We conclude that
Warren’s agreement with this sentence qualified as protected
speech for two reasons.
First, the First Amendment protects statements of future
conduct. The district court ruled that the sentence could
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 41 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 41
reasonably be construed as a “statement of future conduct, not pro-
tected speech.” Doc. 150 at 47. But the premise underlying the dis-
trict court’s ruling, that a statement about future conduct could
never be protected speech, is incorrect. The Supreme Court has
never stripped a statement of future conduct of First Amendment
protection simply because it expresses future conduct. Rather, it
has crafted doctrines distinguishing statements of future conduct
from other, unprotected categories.
Consider Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969). There, a
Ku Klux Klan leader threatened to take “revengeance” against the
government and expressed his intent to march on Washington. Id.
at 446. He made statements of future conduct, promising that
“[w]e are marching on Congress July the Fourth, four hundred
thousand strong.” Id. After Ohio convicted the speaker of criminal
syndicalism, the Supreme Court reversed. The Court held that the
First Amendment prevented Ohio from punishing “mere advo-
cacy.” Id. at 449. Put another way, the First Amendment protected
the statements so long as they did not rise to the level of incitement
or fall into another unprotected category. See also Virginia v. Black,
538 U.S. 343 (2003) (distinguishing a protected statement of future
conduct from an unprotected true threat).
Neither Brandenburg nor Black, nor the unprotected catego-
ries they defined, would be necessary if statements of future con-
duct categorically lacked First Amendment protection. But they are
necessary because the First Amendment does protect statements of
future conduct unless they fall into an unprotected category.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 42 of 59
42 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
DeSantis has failed to identify an unprotected category for the sen-
tence, so the First Amendment presumptively protects it.
Second, the First Amendment protects the sentence when
analyzed in context. The district court plucked one sentence out of
a three-page statement, analyzing it “standing alone.” Doc. 150 at
48. But “[t]he First Amendment does not permit such a shortcut.”
Black, 538 U.S. at 367. Rather, courts must assess “all of the contex-
tual factors that are necessary to decide” whether statements fall
outside the First Amendment’s bounds. Id.; see also Connick v. My-
ers, 461 U.S. 138, 147–48 (1983) (Whether speech is protected
speech or unprotected government speech “must be determined
by the content, form, and context of a given statement, as revealed
by the whole record.”). The whole abortion statement provides the
context within which courts should assess the sentence.
We explained above why the First Amendment protects the
abortion statement. That protection extends to the sentence the
district court singled out. The sentence does not lose First Amend-
ment protection because of the government-speech doctrine. And
it does not lose protection because of Pickering balancing.
When analyzed within its context, Warren’s act of signing
onto an advocacy statement that had a sentence expressing signa-
tories’ “commit[ment] to exercise [their] well-settled discretion and
refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or support abor-
tions” enjoys First Amendment protection. Doc. 112-5 at 1. Rather
than making a policy decision, Warren made a protected statement
of future conduct.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 43 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 43
3. The First Amendment Protects Warren from Deci-
sions Based Solely on Political Benefit.
The district court concluded that DeSantis did not violate
the First Amendment when anticipated political benefit motivated
his suspension decision. We disagree. We do agree, though, with
the district court’s intermediate conclusions: that the First Amend-
ment does not protect a state attorney’s policies and prosecutorial
decisions and that, without more, considering an action’s antici-
pated political benefit does not transform an otherwise lawful ad-
verse action into First Amendment retaliation.
Here is where we part ways with the district court: the an-
ticipated political benefit cannot be based on protected activity. Put
another way, if a government actor’s controlling motivation be-
hind an adverse action is gaining political benefit from punishing
protected activity, the government actor flouts the First Amend-
ment. Cf. Elrod, 427 U.S. at 349; Branti,445 U.S. at 508
; Rutan v.
Republican Party of Ill., 497 U.S. 62, 64 (1990).
The proper analysis therefore focuses on whether DeSantis
sought to reap political benefit from punishing Warren’s unpro-
tected activities or sought to reap political benefit from punishing
Warren’s protected activities. The First Amendment protects only
the second scenario, not the first.
The district court found that DeSantis sought political ben-
efit from “bringing down a reform prosecutor.” Doc. 150 at 57. It
made clear throughout its opinion that DeSantis’s anticipated po-
litical benefit derived from Warren’s advocacy and reputation as a
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 44 of 59
44 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
reform prosecutor. The district court referred to Warren’s perfor-
mance as a reform prosecutor, but its findings tell a different story.
The district court’s findings show that DeSantis never sus-
pended Warren because DeSantis disagreed with his actual office
policies or case decisions. Keefe never looked for deficient perfor-
mance or neglect of duty; instead, he looked for indications “asso-
ciated with reform prosecutors.” Id. at 54. Keefe never sought in-
formation about Warren’s policies or details of his case decisions
because “he already knew all he needed to know: Mr. Warren was
the leading Florida reform prosecutor.” Id. at 55. Keefe urged the
suspension along because Warren “was a reform prosecutor.” Id.
On these facts, DeSantis based Warren’s suspension on his reputa-
tion as a “reform prosecutor.” DeSantis’s political benefit was
solely derived from Warren’s political ideology.
The First Amendment prevents DeSantis from identifying a
reform prosecutor and then suspending him to garner political ben-
efit. On remand, the district court should reconsider whether De-
Santis would have made the same decision based solely on unpro-
tected activities. 9
9 Because we conclude that the First Amendment protects Warren, we decline
to address Warren’s argument that DeSantis’s anticipated political benefit can-
not supply the legitimate reason Mount Healthy requires because considering
political benefit violates state law.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 45 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 45
C. DeSantis’s Probable Cause Argument
Before closing, we must address one more argument DeSan-
tis raises. He argues that to maintain a First Amendment retaliation
claim, Warren must make a threshold showing that DeSantis
lacked probable cause for the suspension. The district court re-
jected this argument, concluding that DeSantis lacked probable
cause and that probable cause would be insufficient to defeat War-
ren’s claim. We decline to decide whether probable cause would
defeat Warren’s claim because, even if it would, DeSantis lacked
probable cause.
“[C]ourts have identified two general approaches to retalia-
tion claims against government actors . . . .” DeMartini v. Town of
Gulf Stream, 942 F.3d 1277, 1289 (11th Cir. 2019). When a govern-
ment employee alleges retaliation by her employer, we use the first
approach, which the Supreme Court outlined in Mount Healthy.
This approach, applied above, generally “looks to whether the de-
fendant governmental employer’s retaliatory motivation was the
but-for cause of the adverse employment decision.” DeMartini,
942 F.3d at 1289. When the defendant “arrest[s] or prosecute[s] the
plaintiff,” we apply the second approach, which generally requires
a showing that the defendant lacked probable cause. Id. Under the
second approach, the plaintiff must show the defendant lacks prob-
able cause and succeed under Mount Healthy’s burden-shifting
framework to obtain relief. See Nieves, 139 S. Ct. at 1725.
DeSantis urges that we apply the second approach. We need
not decide whether we should because Warren showed that
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 46 of 59
46 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
DeSantis lacked probable cause for the suspension. See DeMartini,
942 F.3d at 1300. To have probable cause for the suspension, De-
Santis must have reasonably believed that Warren established blan-
ket nonprosecution policies sufficient to constitute neglect of duty
or incompetence.
DeSantis could not have reasonably believed that. The dis-
trict court found that Warren’s office had no blanket policies pro-
hibiting discretion. The court found that “any minimally compe-
tent inquiry would have confirmed this.” Doc. 150 at 15. The Low-
Level Offense Policy and the Bike Policy required prosecutors to
consider case-specific facts when making charging decisions. The
Discretion Policy, which Chronister provided to Keefe, empha-
sized the need to exercise prosecutorial discretion at every stage of
every case. DeSantis, moreover, “has been unable to identify even
a single case in which” Warren’s office failed to exercise individu-
alized discretion. Id. at 53.
DeSantis cites decisions evaluating probable cause in the
wrongful arrest context to argue that the district court erred in its
probable cause analysis. But his reliance on these cases is mis-
placed. In the wrongful arrest context, unlike the suspension con-
text, officers make “quick decisions in circumstances that are tense,
uncertain, and rapidly evolving.” Nieves, 139 S. Ct. at 1725 (internal
quotation marks omitted). And even in the arrest context, “an of-
ficer may not ‘unreasonably disregard certain pieces of evidence’
by ‘choosing to ignore information that has been offered to him or
her’ or ‘electing not to obtain easily discoverable facts’ that might
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 47 of 59
23-10459 Opinion of the Court 47
tend to exculpate a suspect.” Cozzi v. City of Birmingham, 892 F.3d
1293, 1294 (11th Cir. 2018) (alterations adopted) (quoting Kings-
land v. City of Miami, 382 F.3d 1220, 1230 (11th Cir. 2004)), abrogated
on other grounds by Washington v. Howard, 25 F.4th 891 (11th Cir.
2022); see also Kingsland, 382 F.3d at 1230 (concluding officers lacked
arguable probable cause where “officers consciously and deliber-
ately did not make an effort to uncover reasonably discoverable,
material information”), abrogated on other grounds by Williams v.
Aguirre, 965 F.3d 1147 (11th Cir. 2020).
DeSantis was under no pressure to suspend Warren. Eight
months elapsed between when Keefe first learned about Warren
and when DeSantis suspended him. It took about three weeks for
DeSantis’s staff to finalize the executive order alone. What is more,
his staff ignored readily available information contradicting the
purported basis for the suspension. As the district court found,
Keefe “made no effort” to determine how Warren’s office imple-
mented the Low-Level Offense Policy or the Bike Policy because
he “did not wish to know.” Doc. 150 at 55. He made no effort to
determine whether the advocacy statements affected the office’s
functions. And although DeSantis’s attorneys knew of Warren’s
subsequent statements that prosecution decisions in every case, in-
cluding abortion cases, depended on the case’s circumstances, De-
Santis’s attorneys ignored them. Even in the arrest context, alt-
hough officers need not “explore and eliminate every theoretically
plausible claim of innocence,” they cannot ignore readily available
information as DeSantis did here. Kingsland, 382 F.3d at 1229 (inter-
nal quotation marks omitted). Because DeSantis lacked probable
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 48 of 59
48 Opinion of the Court 23-10459
cause to believe Warren neglected his duty or was incompetent,
we do not address whether probable cause would have defeated
Warren’s claim. 10
IV. CONCLUSION
We vacate and remand to the district court for further pro-
ceedings consistent with this opinion. On remand, the district court
should reexamine whether DeSantis would have suspended War-
ren based solely on the unprotected activities that motivated the
suspension: Warren’s performance, his Low-Level Offense Policy,
and his Bike Policy.
VACATED and REMANDED.
10 DeSantis argues that even if Warren prevails on the merits of his claim, the
district court lacks the authority to reinstate Warren. We reject this argument.
The Eleventh Amendment permits federal courts to remedy First Amendment
violations. See Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123, 159–60 (1908); see also Brown v. Ga.
Dep’t of Revenue, 881 F.2d 1018, 1023 (11th Cir. 1989) (“The determinative ques-
tion is . . . whether the relief was ordered pursuant to state or federal law.”);
Lane v. Cent. Ala. Cmty. Coll., 772 F.3d 1349, 1351 (11th Cir. 2014) (holding that
Ex parte Young permits reinstatement).
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 49 of 59
23-10459 Newsom, J., Concurring 1
NEWSOM, Circuit Judge, concurring:
During a recent presidential debate, Florida Governor Ron
DeSantis lamented that, in his view, other contenders for the Re-
publican nomination weren’t “willing to stand up and fight back
against what the Left is doing to this country.” As evidence that he
would do so, DeSantis boasted that he had “beat[en] the teachers’
unions when [he] did school choice,” that he had “beat[en] Fauci
on COVID,” and, as relevant here, that he had “beat[en] George
Soros when [he] removed two of his radical district attorneys.” An-
drew Warren was one of the DAs whom DeSantis removed. The
question before us today is whether, in doing so, DeSantis violated
the First Amendment.
As the majority explains, the district court concluded (1) that
six different factors motivated DeSantis’s decision to suspend War-
ren—two of which the court found impermissibly focused on pro-
tected First Amendment activity and four of which didn’t, and (2)
that DeSantis would have suspended Warren based on the unpro-
tected factors alone. See Maj. Op. at 2–3. As the majority also ex-
plains, among the considerations that the district court identified
was Warren’s joinder in the Fair and Just Prosecution organiza-
tion’s statement advocating abortion rights and condemning the
Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organ-
ization, 142 S. Ct. 2228(2022). Seeid.
at 7–9. The district court
found that the bulk of that statement—and thus Warren’s endorse-
ment of it—constituted pure political speech and, therefore, that it
couldn’t validly serve as a basis for DeSantis’s action. But, the court
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 50 of 59
2 Newsom, J., Concurring 23-10459
held, “one sentence in the FJP abortion statement” was “on a dif-
ferent footing.” Doc. 150 at 47. In that sentence, signatories “de-
cline[d] to use [their] offices’ resources to criminalize reproductive
health decisions and commit[ted] to exercise [their] well-settled dis-
cretion and refrain from prosecuting those who seek, provide, or
support abortions.” Doc. 112-5 at 1. “[S]tanding alone,” the district
court held, that sentence—which I’ll call the abortion-related
“commitment”—constituted “a statement of future conduct, not
protected speech,” and thus served as a valid ground for Warren’s
suspension. Doc. 150 at 47–48.
At first glance, the district court’s conclusion seems sensible
enough—namely, that Warren’s so-called “commitment” was pre-
cisely the sort of “blanket” non-prosecution policy that DeSantis
had targeted, and precisely the sort of “performance” in office that
the First Amendment doesn’t reach. See id. at 1, 3, 43, 52 (referring
to DeSantis’s focus on “blanket” non-prosecution policies); id. at 44
(noting that Warren’s “[a]ctual [p]erformance” in office isn’t pro-
tected First Amendment activity). But a closer look, particularly
one that properly accounts for context, reveals that the sentence
the district court isolated was neither a “blanket” statement of any
kind nor a “policy” of any sort. Nor was it an instance of Warren
“perform[ing]” his job duties. For better or worse, it was an expres-
sion of pure political speech made by an elected government offi-
cial, and thus entitled to full First Amendment protection.
Because in balancing the six factors it identified the district
court put Warren’s abortion-related “commitment”—and,
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 51 of 59
23-10459 Newsom, J., Concurring 3
relatedly, the “political benefit” that DeSantis might reap from his
suspension of Warren—on the wrong side of the ledger, its analysis
suffers from (my term) an “input” error. Accordingly, the majority
today correctly reverses and remands the case for a re-weighing.
I
As an initial matter, the district court’s focus was too granu-
lar. It’s clear from the court’s analysis that it examined the “single
sentence” in the FJP’s abortion statement “standing alone.” Doc.
150 at 48; see also id. at 41, 45, 47, 53, 58 (“the one sentence”). But
as in all interpretive enterprises, “context is king.” Wachovia Bank,
N.A. v. United States, 455 F.3d 1261, 1267 (11th Cir. 2006). And in-
deed, that is perhaps especially true when First Amendment free-
doms are at stake. See, e.g., Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343, 367 (2003)
(directing courts to assess “all of the contextual factors that are nec-
essary to decide” whether statements fall within the First Amend-
ment’s bounds); Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138, 147–48 (1983) (ex-
plaining that whether speech is protected “must be determined by
the content, form, and context of a given statement, as revealed by
the whole record”).
Evaluated in the proper context—provided both by the doc-
ument itself and by the surrounding circumstances of which De-
Santis and his deputies were aware—it’s clear that the “commit-
ment” wasn’t a “policy” at all, let alone a “blanket” one. Nor was
it constitutionally unprotected job “performance.” It was pure
speech, which—whether one agrees with its import or not—enjoys
First Amendment protection.
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 52 of 59
4 Newsom, J., Concurring 23-10459
A
First and foremost, although the question isn’t free from
ambiguity, I don’t think that the “commitment” sentence in the FJP
abortion statement is properly understood as a statement of official
“policy.”
There are admittedly a few aspects of the FJP statement that
give off official-policy vibes. For instance, (1) Warren signed the
letter using his official title; (2) the statement purports to represent
his views as an “elected prosecutor[]”; (3) by definition, only a pros-
ecutor acting in his or her official capacity can decide whether to
charge a crime; and (4) the letter makes representations about the
use of “our offices’ [i.e., public] resources.” Doc. 112-5 at 1.
On balance, though, it seems clear to me that no part of the
FJP’s abortion-related statement—including the “commitment”—
constituted official policy. That is true for both procedural and sub-
stantive reasons.
First, procedure. As the majority opinion explains, the rec-
ord shows that Warren used a specific process whenever he
adopted a formal office policy: “Th[at] process involved consulting
an executive committee, on which senior prosecutors served; draft-
ing and revising the policy . . . and informing managers about it;
and, finally, training on the new policy.” Maj. Op. at 5. Warren
then “collected his policies in a guidebook provided to prosecutors
in his office and available on an internal [web]site.” Id.; accord Doc.
150 at 9–10 (noting that “office policies” were “circulated to all the
prosecutors and collected in a guidebook”).
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 53 of 59
23-10459 Newsom, J., Concurring 5
Tellingly, that’s precisely the process Warren used to adopt
and implement other office policies at issue in this case, including
the Bike and Low-Level-Offense Policies. When formulating the
Bike Policy, for example, Warren and his executive committee met
with local sheriffs and police chiefs to discuss the pertinent issues
and to solicit input that he then incorporated. That policy was then
formalized, memorialized in writing, and posted on the office’s in-
ternal website. So too, the Low-Level-Offense Policy was re-
searched and drafted with the input of local law enforcement and,
as with Warren’s other policies, was then formally “approved” and
posted to the office’s internal website.
Notably, none of that formality attended Warren’s joinder in
the FJP’s abortion-related statement or its “commitment” sen-
tence. As the district court correctly explained, the statement was
“not presented to or approved by the executive committee,” was
“not adopted through the process in place for establishing poli-
cies—the process that had led to approval of the [B]ike and [L]ow-
[L]evel-[O]ffense [P]olicies,” was “not circulated within the office
or included in the guidebook,” and was “not posted on the office
website”—and, therefore, “did not set out policy of the Thirteenth
Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office.” Doc. 150 at 39–40. More-
over, as the district court also correctly explained, joining the FJP
statement wasn’t part of Warren’s “official duties” or “official re-
sponsibilities” but, rather, was “simply [a] political statement[] that
Mr. Warren subscribed to individually and with which he generally
agreed.” Id. Warren, the district court said, joined the FJP’s abor-
tion-related statement “on his own, as an advocate, not within the
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 54 of 59
6 Newsom, J., Concurring 23-10459
course and scope of this duties.” Id. at 41. It’s hard for me to un-
derstand how the district court could have found all that to be
true—as I think it is—and yet come to the conclusion that Warren’s
joinder in the FJP statement’s “commitment” sentence constituted
an act of unprotected policymaking.
Second, and separately, there’s the substance of the FJP’s
abortion-related statement itself, which was released the day that
the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Dobbs and lamented the
Court’s “decision to end the federally protected constitutional right
to abortion.” Doc. 112-5 at 1. When read in context—that is, when
properly situated within the entire document—it’s clear that the
single-sentence “commitment” is, like the balance of the state-
ment, pure political advocacy protected by the First Amendment.
Here, for example, are the sorts of contentions that surrounded the
lone sentence on which the district court focused:
• “[W]e have watched with increasing concern as the consti-
tutional right to abortion has been threatened and eroded.”
• “[A]t the heart of the pursuit of justice is the furtherance of
policies and practices that protect the well-being and safety
of all members of our community.”
• “Criminalizing abortion will not end abortion; it will simply
end safe abortion, forcing the most vulnerable among us—
as well as medical providers—to make impossible deci-
sions.”
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 55 of 59
23-10459 Newsom, J., Concurring 7
• “Abortion bans will isolate people from the law enforce-
ment, medical, and social resources they need.”
• “Abortion bans will also disproportionately harm victims of
sexual abuse, rape, incest, human trafficking, and domestic
violence.”
• “We are horrified that some states have failed to carve out
exceptions for victims of sexual violence and incest in their
abortion restrictions; this is unconscionable.”
• “Keeping communities safe inherently requires promoting
trust and faith in the integrity of the rule of law.”
• “Criminalizing and prosecuting individuals who seek or
provide abortion care makes a mockery of justice; prosecu-
tors should not be part of that.”
Id. at 1–3.
In short, the FJP’s statement was, as the district court ob-
served, “chock full of core political speech”—in particular, pro-
choice, pro-Roe, anti-Dobbs speech. Doc. 150 at 36. If context really
is king—if words and phrases really are known by the company
they keep—then it seems clear to me that the single-sentence abor-
tion “commitment” is likewise best understood as a statement of
political advocacy, not a declaration of office policy.
B
Even if the abortion-commitment sentence could be under-
stood as having promulgated a formal policy, it certainly wasn’t a
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 56 of 59
8 Newsom, J., Concurring 23-10459
“blanket” policy of the sort that DeSantis said justified Warren’s
suspension. See, e.g., id. at 1, 3, 43, 52. The district court found as
fact that “[j]ust four days” after signing onto the FJP statement,
Warren “made clear in an interview on local television station
FOX-13 that he would exercise discretion whether to prosecute any
abortion case that came to the office—none ever had—just as the
office exercised discretion in every other case of every other kind.”
Id. at 19. Specifically, Warren explained that he would decide
whether to prosecute abortion crimes based on the “facts and cir-
cumstances of every case.” Id. at 23. The district court further
found that in the same interview Warren “said he would follow
court rulings on the newly enacted Florida abortion statute, ‘HB5,’
which banned abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy.” Id. at 19.
The district court also found as fact that “[t]he Governor’s
office knew about Mr. Warren’s statements” clarifying his position
on abortion-related matters. Id. In particular, the court found that
DeSantis’s general counsel originally included in the draft order
suspending Warren a “sentence acknowledging [his] statement in
the FOX-13 interview that he would exercise discretion whether to
prosecute abortion crimes based on the ‘facts and circumstances of
every case,’” but that the acknowledgment was eventually “re-
moved from the draft” when it couldn’t be convincingly explained.
Id. at 23.
So the best evidence indicates—and the district court’s own
findings demonstrate—that Warren’s joinder in FJP’s abortion-re-
lated “commitment” was never made a formal office policy, let
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 57 of 59
23-10459 Newsom, J., Concurring 9
alone a “blanket” policy of the sort that DeSantis emphasized as the
basis for Warren’s suspension.
II
This conclusion—that the abortion-related “commitment”
sentence was neither official policy nor on-the-job performance,
but rather pure speech entitled to First Amendment protection—
rings especially true given that Warren was an elected official ad-
dressing a matter of intense political interest.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly emphasized, as a general
matter, that “First Amendment protection is ‘at its zenith’” when
applied to “core political speech.” Meyer v. Grant, 486 U.S. 414, 420,
425(1988); see also, e.g., New York Times Co. v. Sullivan,376 U.S. 254, 270
(1964) (emphasizing the country’s “profound national commit-
ment to the principle that debate on public issues should be unin-
hibited, robust, and wide-open”). It would be an understatement
to say that during the last 50 years no issue has captured the politi-
cal imagination—and been the topic of more vigorous political de-
bate—than abortion.
The Court has also stressed, more specifically, that “[t]he
role that elected officials play in our society makes it all the more
imperative that they be allowed freely to express themselves on
matters of current public importance.” Wood v. Georgia, 370 U.S.
375, 394–95 (1962) (so holding in a case involving an elected sheriff);
see also, e.g., Houston Cmty. Coll. Sys. v. Wilson, 595 U.S. 468, 478
(2022) (“The First Amendment surely promises an elected repre-
sentative . . . the right to speak freely on questions of government
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 58 of 59
10 Newsom, J., Concurring 23-10459
policy.”). And why must elected officials like Warren “be given the
widest latitude to express views on issues of social policy”? To
serve “[t]he manifest function of the First Amendment in a repre-
sentative government.” Bond v. Floyd, 385 U.S. 116, 135–36 (1966).
Warren wasn’t just an elected official, he was also a once and likely
future candidate for office. And “[w]hatever differences may exist
about interpretations of the First Amendment, there is practically
universal agreement that a major purpose of that Amendment was
to protect the free discussion of governmental affairs[,] . . . of
course includ[ing] discussions of candidates.” Mills v. Alabama, 384
U.S. 214, 218 (1966). And, to close the loop, that makes sense, be-
cause “[i]n a republic where the people are sovereign, the ability of
the citizenry to make informed choices among candidates for office
is essential, for the identities of those who are elected will inevitably
shape the course that we follow as a nation.” Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S.
1, 14–15 (1976).
Bottom line: The Supreme Court has made clear—for rea-
sons that cut to the core of our representative democracy—that the
First Amendment safeguards elected officials’ right to express their
views on salient political issues. Whatever one thinks of Warren’s
particular views about abortion, he is no less entitled to that pro-
tection.
III
The First Amendment is an inconvenient thing. It protects
expression that some find wrongheaded, or offensive, or even ridic-
ulous. But for the same reason that the government can’t muzzle
USCA11 Case: 23-10459 Document: 89-1 Date Filed: 01/11/2024 Page: 59 of 59
23-10459 Newsom, J., Concurring 11
so-called “conservative” speech under the guise of preventing on-
campus “harassment,” see Speech First, Inc. v. Cartwright, 32 F.4th
1110 (11th Cir. 2022), the state can’t exercise its coercive power to
censor so-called “woke” speech with which it disagrees. What’s
good for mine is (whether I like it or not) good for thine. 1
1 There is one loose end: The district court correctly acknowledged in its opin-
ion that “[t]he Eleventh Amendment prohibits a federal court from awarding
declaratory or injunctive relief of the kind at issue against a state official based
only on a violation of state law.” Doc. 150 at 59; see also, e.g., Pennhurst State
Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 465 U.S. 89, 106(1984); Williams v. Reeves,954 F.3d 729
, 734, 739–41 (5th Cir. 2020) (holding that Pennhurst’s bar applies to requests
for declaratory, as well as injunctive, relief). And yet, it repeatedly “declar[ed]”
its view of Florida law. See, e.g., Doc. 150 at 44 (“These other factors could not
properly be the basis for a suspension under the Florida Constitution .…”), 45
(“[U]nder the Florida Constitution, a governor cannot properly suspend a state
attorney just for implementing a reform-prosecutor agenda .…”), 49 (“The
bike and low-level-offense policies were not blanket nonprosecution policies,
and under the Florida Constitution, they were not a legitimate basis for sus-
pending Mr. Warren.”), 50 (“[B]eing a Democrat or accepting legal political
contributions is plainly not a legitimate basis for a suspension under the Flor-
ida Constitution.”), 51 (“The Florida Constitution does not allow a governor
to suspend a state attorney to achieve a political benefit for the governor.”),
and 59 (“The suspension . . . violated the Florida Constitution.”). On remand,
the district court should avoid such unnecessary (and impermissible) asides
regarding the consistency of Governor DeSantis’s conduct vis-à-vis Florida
law.
Reference
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published