Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier had no qualms defying a federal judge’s order. The state’s chief state legal officer said he even would be willing to go to jail.
The showdown occurred in 2025 when U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams ordered Florida not to enforce a new state law that saw minorities detained as they crossed the state line, suspected of being illegal immigrants. Uthmeier told Florida law enforcement to ignore the ruling.
He told a Tallahassee conservative podcaster he wanted to be seen as an example of “fighting against these judges that really act like radical legislators.” Williams found Uthmeier in civil contempt, ordering him to report back to her any incidences where her order may have been violated by law enforcement.
It’s hardly the only fight Uthmeier has picked.
Uthmeier, 38, who has never been elected, quickly positioned himself as Florida’s ultimate culture warrior after Gov. Ron DeSantis elevated him from chief of staff in January 2025 after he picked then-Attorney General Ashley Moody to be U.S. senator, replacing Marco Rubio.
Credited as the architect of the now-closed $1 billion Alligator Alcatraz immigrant detention center and embroiled in the Hope Florida political scandal, Uthmeier has declared war on multiple fronts:
“I am not aware of any Florida attorney general who has taken the same positions as this one has,” said Ashley Jewett, associate professor of political science at the University of Central Florida. “He has really announced multiple high-profile culture war actions and presumably, at least in part, to increase his notoriety and name recognition so he can have a better chance of getting elected in his own right.”
State Rep. Monique Miller, R-Palm Beach, said she applauds the way Uthmeier has used the office of attorney general.
“Everything is now fought in the courts, and this has been happening increasingly over the past 10 years,” Miller said. “The courts have become the center of the battlefield, and so this is a natural outcropping.”
She said the political left has used the courts to pursue its agenda for decades and conservatives are catching up. “That has put attorneys general in the forefront of a lot of this, and really given them a toolbox to go and be relevant,” she said.
Uthmeier has the support of President Donald Trump, who on Aug. 3 on his Truth Social platform described Uthmeier as “The MAN behind ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ.”
Uthmeier “is an America First warrior, who is a true champion for ‘MAGA,’” the president said. The facility closed in June. It is estimated to cost Florida taxpayers more than $1 billion.
Uthmeier did not comment for this story. Questions were sent to his spokesman, Jeremy Redfern.
“We will not stand idly by as the left tries to infiltrate our institutions and use the court system to indoctrinate our kids. We will fight the activists that try to weaken our duly enacted law, that try to challenge our constitutional order and try to harm the unborn,” he said when sworn in to the AG position.
His predecessors, Moody and Pam Bondi, certainly pursued a conservative agenda, but more in a defensive posture. Bondi spent years trying to uphold the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, for example, and Moody protected Florida’s six-week abortion law.
Uthmeier, by contrast, plays offense, calling aggressive plays designed to seize the spotlight and move the political ball downfield.
“We will not stand idly by as the left tries to infiltrate our institutions and use the court system to indoctrinate our kids. We will fight the activists that try to weaken our duly enacted law, that try to challenge our constitutional order and try to harm the unborn,” he said when sworn in.
Uthmeier sent out a July 31 letter to the Florida Conference on Catholic Bishops, threatening to withhold state voucher and scholarship money over vaccine requirements.
He also got in on the GOP’s Fauci fever, subpoenaing Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Aug. 5 over “potential self-dealing during COVID-19.”
And on Aug. 8 he made national headlines, when he took offense at a foul against WBNA star Sophie Cunningham, who has been championed in conservative circles lately for her comments pushing back on transgender athletes in women’s sports.
“The WNBA knows better than to play games down here in Florida, because I’ll be charging people with assault,” Uthmeier wrote in a post on X.
And finally, on Aug. 10, he sent a demand letter to The New York Times asking for editorial records of its board, claiming that recent mistakes opened the publication to lawsuits, thus threatening the retirement funds of Floridians.
Foremost, Uthmeier secured a ruling from the federal appeals courts this August upholding the state’s ambiguous law on performances deemed lewd or sexually explicit.
Julie Seaver, executive director of Compass, Palm Beach County’s oldest LGBTQ community center, said the state’s top law enforcement officer is targeting her community. “This isn’t about drag … it’s an attack on the trans community because these people don’t understand the difference between gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation and performance art,” she said.
The Fort Walton Beach High School graduate went to the University of Florida, where he ran varsity track and cross-country, getting undergraduate and graduate degrees there. He later graduated from Georgetown University Law Center in 2014 before interning as a law clerk for Rubio when he was senator.
After a stint as a litigation associate at the law firm Jones Day in Washington, D.C., Uthmeier was a senior advisor and counsel to U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross before joining the DeSantis administration in 2019 in the general counsel’s office. He was appointed chief of staff two years later.
Uthmeier is seen in conservative circles as DeSantis’ hammer.
“He’s aggressive. He takes no B.S., and he gets things done,” Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia said in February 2025.“A lot of things we’ve been able to accomplish as a state are because of Ron DeSantis’ vision and James Uthmeier’s execution.”
Jewett added: “When Gov. DeSantis appointed Uthmeier, he called him a real bulldog, and he has certainly lived up to that description as somebody who was just going to go forward and attack and not let go.”
In appointing him, DeSantis said, “I know he has the proper worldview.”
Ulthmeier, whose primary opponent dropped out of the race, will face Democrat Jose Javier Rodriguez on the November ballot. Rodriguez, an attorney and former state lawmaker from Miami. said he wants to return the office to its regular role representing all Floridians.
“We’re going to refocus on public safety, provide support to cops and prosecutors, and stop with all this expensive and cruel political theater,” Rodriguez told USA Network Florida.
Civil libertarians interviewed for this article say Uthmeier represents the Orwellian antithesis of the so-called “Free State of Florida” where the rights of one group — white, Christian and male — supersede those of all other Floridians.
Uthmeier issued an opinion saying he wouldn’t enforce some state laws, such as those establishing the Black Business Loan Program and other outreach programs, because he said they were unconstitutional.
The attorney general often invokes his faith during interviews and speaking engagements and has taught religious education classes with his wife Jean at the Co-Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee. He has asserted that Christianity is the “center of the nation’s religious identity.”
“Uthmeier is one of the least qualified people to serve as Florida’s attorney general,” said Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Florida Center for Government Accountability. “It’s all political theater. It’s all a political show — and it’s all done to advance his own political aspirations.”
Rodriguez, his Democratic opponent, cited a Miami Herald and Tampa Bay Times investigation that Uthmeier intervened in court cases on behalf of campaign donors, including Norman Braman, who owned the Philadelphia Eagles in 1985–94 and owns a network of auto dealerships in South Florida.
“These strings of $25,000 contributions leading to official action in areas that normally don’t involve the attorney general’s office seem to signal that Uthmeier wants corruption to be his calling card,” Rodriguez said.
Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, said of the pay-to-play allegations, “Uthmeier has turned the Attorney General’s office into an auction house.”
Uthmeier is also tied to the Hope Florida Foundation scandal, in which $10 million from a Medicaid settlement between a contractor and the state was funneled through Florida first lady Casey DeSantis’ charity and ultimately to two PACs, one controlled by Uthmeier, one of which successfully campaigned against the 2024 recreational marijuana ballot initiative. He has denied wrongdoing.
Uthmeier also received criticism for a $100,000 side gig at the University of Florida, where he teaches a weekly two-hour class at the law school. The average adjunct professor makes between $4,000 and $7,500 per course.
Rodriguez, Uthmeier’s opponent, put it this way: “He’s doing the opposite of what the job commands and he’s profiting off the office. Rather than advocate for the people, he’s screwing the people on behalf of the people he should be standing up to.”
John Pacenti is the Government Impact Reporter for The USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://palmbeachpost.com/newsletters.
Florida AG Uthmeier embraces ultimate culture warrior role | Exclusive – Florida Today
