“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely” — Lord Acton, British historian, parliamentarian and philosopher, 1887.
Conservatives used to fondly quote Acton’s timeless warning. Not so much lately. With power shifting their way in a majority of states, they are too busy proving his point.
In Florida, at least four current controversies radiate gross abuses of power by Gov. Ron DeSantis. During an trade of insults Monday in their one televised debate, challenger Charlie Crist put it succinctly: “He thinks he knows better than anybody.”
DeSantis has abused his power by suspending Hillsborough County’s twice-elected Democratic state attorney, Andrew Warren, who broke no laws; flying migrants at public expense from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard; bullying the Legislature into erasing two Democratic congressional districts, one of which had more than 116,000 Black residents in Leon and Gadsden counties; and staging police raids to arrest nearly 20 people on charges of illegal voting in a media event clearly aimed at Black voter suppression.
The last example concerns 17 people, nearly all Black, simultaneously arrested and handcuffed in early morning raids — mostly in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties — with the Office of Statewide Prosecution (OSP) charging them with registering and voting illegally. Police bodycam video obtained by the Tampa Bay Times showed utterly confused people who were told they could vote despite felony records. In some episodes, police appeared sympathetic.
Their treatment contrasted sharply with the respectful handling of residents of The Villages, a nearly all-white, heavily Republican constituency in Central Florida, who were charged on a tipster’s information with knowingly voting twice in 2020. The local prosecutor granted deferred prosecution agreements involving community service and a civics class, after which charges were to be dropped.
DeSantis sent the recent cases to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and to the office of Statewide Prosecutor Nick Cox, an employee of Attorney General Ashley Moody, who is also running for re-election. Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Milton Hirsch ruled that Cox had no authority to charge Robert Lee Wood of Opa Locka, who had been issued a voter information card but had not had his voting rights restored.
The OSP jurisdiction is constitutionally limited to crimes occurring in two or more judicial circuits in a “related transaction.” Wood registered only in Miami-Dade. Cox claimed multi-circuit jurisdiction because Wood’s registration had been sent to Tallahassee to be checked out.
Hirsch rightly saw that as a stretch, and cited a passage from Shakespeare: “His arms spread wider than a dragon’s wings.” It was a timely and much-needed rebuke to the abuse of power in Tallahassee.
Wood’s pro bono attorney, Larry Davis of Hollywood, won the first of what ought to be similar rulings in the cases before other judges. Davis said Wood was arrested at 6 a.m., “pulled out in his underwear.”
The dragon of abusive power is not easily tamed. The state should have simply referred the Wood case to Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle. Instead, it is appealing Hirsch’s dismissal order.
Meanwhile, DeSantis’ lawyers want to persuade a federal judge to exempt him from being questioned under oath as to why he suspended Warren. DeSantis alleged Warren would not enforce Florida’s new 15-week abortion ban or rules prohibiting gender dysphoria treatment for minors, but Warren had not actually taken either step. Trial is set for Nov. 29.
No Florida governor had ever suspended anyone for what they might do.
DeSantis’ lawyers are invoking legal nonsense called the “apex rule,” designed to shield corporate and government executives from answering subpoenas to explain what underlings could. But it’s a travesty in the Warren case because the governor was the only person in government who could suspend Warren. Only DeSantis can explain — or refuse under oath to do so — what political calculations went into it.
Similarly, he’s claiming “executive privilege” against having to submit documents in a state court lawsuit against the congressional districting plan that he forced the Legislature to enact by vetoing one that respected Florida’s Fair Districts constitutional amendments. There again, the governor is the only person who could have done that. No one else can sign a veto message or reveal what influenced him to do it.
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“Executive privilege,” the last resort of presidents who fancy themselves unaccountable, has no foundation in the Florida Constitution.
Neither does the apex doctrine, an unprompted gift from the Florida Supreme Court to large corporations. DeSantis successfully invoked that rule to keep his chief of staff and another key aide from testifying about the migrant flights, which a Texas sheriff is investigating as a possible trafficking crime. But the case has yielded a partial victory: Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh ordered DeSantis to produce documents sought by the Florida Center for Governmental Accountability pertaining to the costly stunt.
DeSantis’ office has been notoriously slow or unwilling to comply with the public records law, so much of Marsh’s ruling is for the good. But the apex doctrine lends itself too easily to a corrupting abuse of power.
The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at letters@sun-sentinel.com.