Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier knows what he wants, and what he wants is to turn his state into a mini version of President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi’s national horror show.
Uthmeier must be so proud that Trump noticed his prominent role in building the so-called “Alligator Alcatraz,” which is essentially a black site immigrant prison in the Everglades.
“You do a very good job. I hear good things. I hear good things about you from Ron, too,” Trump said. “No, you really do. He’s even a good-looking guy. That guy’s got a future, huh?”
But Uthmeier isn’t one to rest on his laurels. He knows that the best way to keep Trump’s attention is to do the same things Trump does. So his most recent copycat move was to declare war on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Uthmeier sent a memo to law firms across the state saying that his office won’t use them as outside counsel if they have any DEI or environmental, social, and governance policies.
This is an odd line in the sand, given that Uthmeier and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis already typically hire GOP-friendly law firms that don’t have any forbidden DEI. But threatening law firms to comply in advance is big at the national level right now, so why wouldn’t Uthmeier get in on it, too?
The memo is absurdly broad and bars law firms from even the smallest of DEI efforts, including scholarships, fellowships, and DEI training—which the memo breathlessly describes as “so egregious as to constitute a plausible basis for a hostile work environment claim or allegation.”
Even reporting firm demographics to third parties that track diversity efforts, like the Minority Corporate Counsel Association, is a no-no.
Uthmeier is equally obsessed about ESG policies, which are typically relatively bland commitments to “be part of the solution” and “working with and supporting clients to respond to climate change.” But according to Uthmeier, they’re part of the “legal-focused arm of the discriminatory ESG apparatus,” and law firms have promoted “discriminatory policies in a prime money-making operation while undermining the rule of law.”
It’s not clear how net-zero carbon emissions efforts are discriminatory. And let’s not even get started on the whole “undermining the rule of law” part. The notion that a corporate law firm signing onto a carbon reduction pledge somehow undermines the rule of law is absurd. But, hey, this is the guy who advised Florida’s entire law enforcement community to ignore a federal court order, so his sense of “rule of law” is a bit wonky.
In June, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams blocked a Florida law that criminalized undocumented immigrants entering the state. Immigration is wholly regulated at the federal level, which is precisely why Trump can terrorize blue states over it. A state law that imposed criminal penalties was never going to fly, and Uthmeier knows that. Nevertheless, he told Florida cops to enforce the law anyway.
“It is my view that no lawful, legitimate order currently impedes your agencies from continuing to enforce Florida’s new illegal entry and reentry laws,” Uthmeier said.
Pretty much the whole of the Trump administration shares Uthmeier’s views here; they just haven’t been quite this blatant.
And while Uthmeier is working on threatening law firms, he hasn’t quite yet gotten to Trump’s level of getting them to bend the knee and bribe him with millions of dollars in pro bono work. But give it time.