Still, the governor cites no case that Warren mishandled, making his suspension a preemptive strike. That’s an egregious overreach, and one that should scare Republicans, Democrats, independents and anyone concerned with due process and the separation of powers. Past governors have used this authority carefully. In 2018, then-Gov. Rick Scott suspended Broward County elections supervisor Brenda Snipes on the heels of a tumultuous recount, citing a litany of well-publicized problems, including the misplacement and inadvertent mixing of ballots. A year before, Scott reassigned more than two dozen potential death penalty cases away from Orlando state attorney Aramis Ayala after she declared she wouldn’t pursue capital punishment. That remedy was more appropriate than a blanket removal from office.

But appropriate is not what this suspension is about. This putsch was about energizing the Trump base on abortion by ousting a high-profile Democrat that Hillsborough voters elected twice, in 2016 and 2020, both times on a progressive platform against a Republican opponent. Why else did DeSantis spend time Thursday talking about San Francisco and George Soros and “woke” criminal justice reform? Why else did it take DeSantis two years after the 2020 protests to parachute in and remove Warren only months before the governor’s own reelection bid?