For the first time in recent history, a federal judge yesterday found Florida’s attorney general in contempt of court for referring to the court’s order blocking a new state immigration law as “illegitimate and unlawful.” Via the Florida Phoenix:
While U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams’ ruling is extraordinary, she spared James Uthmeier from paying hefty fines or spending time in jail. Instead, Williams ordered the state’s chief legal officer to submit biweekly reports to ensure police don’t arrest anyone under an immigration law she blocked in April.
Quoting Humpty Dumpty in her order, Williams chastised Uthmeier.
“Litigants cannot change the plain meaning of words as it suits them, especially when conveying a court’s clear and unambiguous order,” she wrote. “Fidelity to the rule of law can have no other meaning.”
The order followed a May 29 hearing in Miami, where Williams repeatedly locked horns with Jesse Panuccio, the prominent lawyer defending Uthmeier, during arguments about whether to hold him in contempt.
At issue in the contempt decision was a letter Uthmeier sent to law enforcement agencies, sheriffs, and police chiefs on April 23, stating that he couldn’t stop them from making arrests under SB 4C, a law making it a first-degree misdemeanor for a person to enter the state as an “unauthorized alien.”
