To refresh: DeSantis, exercising his authority as the state’s chief executive to remove “any county officer” for, among other things, neglect of duty, fired Warren — a twice-elected Democrat — back on Aug. 4 for pledging not to allow his office to prosecute providers or arrangers of abortions outside Florida’s 15-week limit, or doctors who provide gender-affirming care to youngsters. 

In his executive order, DeSantis accused Warren of “neglect of duty” and “incompetence” as the state attorney of Hillsborough County.

“To take a position that you have veto powers over the laws of the state is untenable,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tampa surrounded by law enforcement.

Both sides aired their grievances in a pre-Festivus three-day trial after Thanksgiving. A ruling that was expected within two weeks finally arrived today — one envisions the judge in a marathon wrestling match with himself — and it’s not hard to imagine the spit-takes when Team Warren got to the bottom line.

Never mind that, on points, the Tallahassee-based judge — longtime history-maker Robert Hinkle — scored the fight a lopsided victory for the plaintiff. His searing, 59-page decision scolded DeSantis and his team for a variety of transgressions ranging from laziness, targeting, foregone conclusions and grandstanding to trampling on Warren’s First Amendment rights and violating the state constitution.

For all of that, however, the bottom line is going to leave a mark — not on DeSantis, but on Warren. Despite his expansive venting on matters political, historic and legal, Hinkle dismissed Warren’s complaint on the all-that-might-be-true-sir-but-this-is-an-Arby’s ruling.

Citing the zip ties that are the Eleventh Amendment (federal courts shall keep their noses out of intra-state matters), Hinkle — a federal judge appointed in 1996 by Bill Clinton — concluded that while he had experienced a splendid time hearing the arguments and reviewing the evidence, and he was only too happy to contribute to the discourse, the former head of prosecuting crime in Hillsborough County had, alas, come to the wrong court. 

DeSantis had suspended Warren for strutting about as a “reform prosecutor,” not for his pronouncements on the same. It was conduct, not speech, that earned the governor’s disdain, Hinkle, at long last, wrote.

“The First Amendment violations were not essential to the outcome and so do not entitle Mr. Warren to relief in this action,” Hinkle said. “The suspension also violated the Florida Constitution, and that violation did affect the outcome. But the 11th 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.”

Here’s Tampa criminal defense attorney Bjorn Brunvand putting it in layman’s terms for explaining it to Fox 13 Tampa Bay: 

“He’s saying, ‘[DeSantis], you’ve been a bad boy. You violated the constitution. You did some things you shouldn’t have done, but my hands are tied and I can’t do anything about it.’”

Anyone expecting DeSantis and his where-woke-goes-to-die administration to act chastened has clearly not been paying attention. So what if the stats were lopsided in the other side’s favor? The scoreboard reported a DeSantis win. Here’s DeSantis spokeswoman Taryn Fenske spiking the ball: 

“Today the court upheld the governor’s decision to suspend Andrew Warren from office for neglect of duty and incompetence.” 

Well, the first 13 words are spot-on, anyway. Still, this episode is clearly another notch in DeSantis’ belt. Winners win — something to keep in mind as the Race for the White House warms up.