Earlier
this
week,
Florida
Attorney
General
James
Uthmeier
dropped
an
official
opinion
declaring
that
he’s
decided
to
void
scores
of
civil
rights
laws
in
Florida
as
unconstitutional.
After
noting
that
“racial
discrimination
is
wrong”
—
the
first
half
of
the
time-honored,
“I’m
not
racist,
but…”
formula
—
Uthmeier
launched
into
his
case
that
the
REAL
racial
discrimination
is
against
white
people.
And
by
“earlier
this
week,”
we
mean
very
specifically
on
Martin
Luther
King
Jr.
Day.
What
a
crazy
coincidence!
Of
all
the
days
to
disrupt
the
news
cycle
with
a
targeted
message
to
white
grievance
voters,
he
chose
MLK
Day?
And
he
wasn’t
even
the
only
state
AG
to
do
this,
you
say?
Wild!
But
also,
in
an
act
of
bureaucratic
auto-eroticism,
Uthmeier
issued
the
opinion
based
on
a
formal
request
from…
himself.
“Therefore,
I
requested,
and
I
am
now
giving,
an
official
opinion
in
writing
on
a
question
of
law
relating
to
my
official
duties,”
Uthmeier
wrote
in
a
section
flagged
on
social
media
by
reporter
Jason
Garcia.
“As
Florida’s
chief
legal
officer,
the
constitutionality
of
laws
that
seek
to
mandate
discrimination
based
on
race
relates
to
my
official
duties
as
Attorney
General.”
Are
those
voices
in
the
room
with
us
right
now,
James?
Florida
law
provides
that
the
state’s
AG
must
provide
legal
opinions
“on
the
written
requisition
of
the
Governor,
a
member
of
the
Cabinet,
the
head
of
a
department
in
the
executive
branch,”
and
legislative
leadership.
The
authors
of
that
law
probably
never
considered
the
possibility
that
a
grandstanding
attorney
general,
as
a
member
of
the
cabinet,
would
try
to
get
high
on
their
own
supply
of
legal
opinions.
The
law
is
modeled
on
an
attorney-client
dynamic:
someone
asks
the
state’s
official
lawyer
and
the
state’s
lawyer
answers.
Self-dealing
is,
of
course,
a
hallmark
of
modern
GOP
politics,
so
rather
than
wait
for
a
client
request,
Uthmeier
gave
himself
a
little
treat
for
MLK
Day,
managing
to
get
taxpayers
to
pay
for
an
anti-affirmative
action
campaign
stunt.
On
that
note,
the
Daily
Wire
claims
it
“first
obtained”
the
opinion,
lest
there
be
any
doubt
that
this
is
just
pre-buttered
culture
war
content.
For
those
not
keeping
score,
last
year
Uthmeier
tried
to
piggyback
off
the
Trump
administration’s
assault
on
Biglaw
by
using
his
office
to
scold
law
firms
for
having
vague
“DEI”
policies.
Because
there’s
no
other
reason
for
this
opinion.
In
a
normal,
ethically
sound
world,
a
state
attorney
general
would
respect
that
attorney-client
framework
and
wait
for,
say,
Governor
Ron
DeSantis
to
formally
seek
an
opinion
bashing
affirmative
action.
Or,
if
Uthmeier
insisted
upon
bringing
the
request
of
his
own
volition,
the
office
would
commission
some
right-wing
law
firm
or
law
professor
to
paper
up
a
tidy
memo.
As
a
former
Jones
Day
associate,
Uthmeier
certainly
knows
where
to
find
some
Federalist
Society
veterans
to
DoorDash
over
some
half-hearted
originalism.
The
problem
with
following
standard
procedure
is
sharing
credit.
No
matter
how
strident
the
opinion
Uthmeier
might
write,
people
would
credit
DeSantis
for
ordering
the
opinion.
And
no
matter
how
much
Uthmeier
might
stress
that
he
requested
it,
he
couldn’t
control
the
campaign
rhetoric
of
an
opinion
farmed
out
to
a
law
firm.
With
this
move
he
can
have
his
cake
and
make
sure
it’s
not
decorated
by
any
minority-owned
businesses
too.
Aside
from
presenting
warmed-over
conservative
legal
philosophy
tropes
like
“The
way
to
stop
discrimination
on
the
basis
of
race
is
to
stop
discriminating
on
the
basis
of
race”
—
a
line
that
must
hit
hard
if
you’re
stupid
—
the
opinion
doesn’t
really
do
much.
The
statutes
remain
on
the
books
and
courts
will
ultimately
decide
whether
they
stay
there.
And,
if
you’re
betting
your
mortgage
on
the
prediction
markets,
you
could
do
worse
than
assuming
the
Supreme
Court
finally
snuffs
out
the
legacy
of
the
civil
rights
movement.
Until
then,
the
job
of
the
state
attorney
general
is
to
enforce
the
laws
the
other
branches
have
created.
Even
if
he
wanted
to
push
the
walls
of
the
separation
of
powers
and
refuse
to
enforce
the
law,
nothing
about
that
decision
would
require
an
announcement
either.
This
was
just
a
blog
post
on
official
letterhead.
And
if
Florida’s
opinion
was
a
message
board
post,
Texas
AG
Ken
Paxton
used
the
holiday
to
uncork
a
self-important
Substack
screed.
As
opposed
to
Florida’s
six
pages
of
argument,
Paxton
used
Dr.
King’s
holiday
for
a
74-page
digital
doorstop
railing
against
all
manifestations
of
DEI.
Has
Paxton
never
heard
that
brevity
is
the
soul
of
bigotry?
At
least
Uthmeier
had
the
decency
to
ask
himself
permission
in
a
legally
themed
Sméagol
and
Gollum
act.
Paxton
doesn’t
even
trifle
with
the
legal
onanism
of
requesting
his
own
opinion
and
just
throws
his
taxpayer-funded
office
into
a
holiday
assault
on
racial
diversity
to
suck
up
headlines
just
in
time
for
his
contentious
Senate
primary
fight
against
the
comparatively
moderate-framed
John
Cornyn.
Federalist
Papers,
revisionist
history
about
Reconstruction,
obligatory
claims
that
MLK
believed
in
a
“color-blind”
society…
this
thing
has
it
all.
Now
that’s
a
law
school
gunner
in
action!
No
matter
how
they
justified
it,
taking
the
unilateral
step
of
releasing
racial
grievance
rants
on
Martin
Luther
King
Day
is
clown
behavior.
It’s
performative
politics
at
its
most
toxic,
where
records
and
accomplishments
are
secondary
to
making
sure
the
public
understands
exactly
who
is
willing
to
take
it
upon
themselves
to
post
up
in
that
proverbial
schoolhouse
door.
Joe
Patrice is
a
senior
editor
at
Above
the
Law
and
co-host
of
Thinking
Like
A
Lawyer.
Feel
free
to email
any
tips,
questions,
or
comments.
Follow
him
on Twitter or
Bluesky
if
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Joe
also
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Managing
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