Not totally immune
But Moody is not immune to public opinion, which should hold her to account for debasing her office with partisan politics.
Her predecessor, Pam Bondi, did that too, seemingly auditioning for a job with Trump, whose fraudulent Trump University she refused to investigate. Out of office, she joined his defense team against Trump’s first impeachment and gave fullthroated support to his Big Lie. Now part of Ballard Partners’ lobbying firm, Bondi has no immunity from Bar discipline.
Other Florida attorneys general of both parties were more mindful of their fundamental responsibility to be the “people’s lawyer.”
Moody has been better than Bondi at enforcing Florida’s unfair and deceptive practices law. Last week, she scored a $21.7 million judgment and a lifetime ban against a rogue moving broker network.
But wearing her political hat, she tried vainly to spin victory from a federal appellate court’s rejection of the main thrust of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ attack on social media companies. She claimed that a panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal had “upheld major portions” of the law. It did just the opposite.
In ruling that Florida could not stop social media companies from blocking politicians like Trump, the panel cited as the “pathmaking case” the unanimous 1974 Supreme Court opinion, Miami Herald v. Tornillo, which overturned a Florida law requiring newspapers to give equal reply space to candidates they opposed. Social media companies are similarly protected by the First Amendment, the panel said.
Moody arguably has a duty to defend even bad Florida laws — but not to misrepresent the outcomes.
The recent massacres of shoppers at a Buffalo supermarket and children and teachers at an elementary school in Texas also bring to mind how Bondi successfully urged the Florida Supreme Court to bar from the 2020 ballot a voter initiative banning assault weapons. Her brief and the court’s 4-2 decision echoed the NRA’s arguments.
She also opposed a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana use by adults, and so did the court, 5-2. Sharing the objections of both political parties, she opposed the “All Voters Vote” initiative that would have created open, all-party primary elections. The court allowed it for the 2020 ballot, but it got only 57% of the vote instead of the 60% necessary. Along with other GOP attorneys general, she tried to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to kill the Affordable Care Act. It was Bondi who had signed the brief, but Moody willingly took her place upon election.
The attorney general can be a partisan shill or she can be the people’s lawyer, but she can’t be both.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board includes Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick and El Sentinel Editor Jennifer Marcial Ocasio. The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, and Anderson. Send us your thoughts at insight@orlandosentinel.com.