Florida AG issues MLK Day memo to 'taunt Black and brown people,' Democrats say

Lawrence Mower, Tampa Bay Times on Jan 22, 2026

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TALLAHASSEE — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier was being deliberately provocative when he released a memo on Martin Luther King Jr. Day stating he wouldn’t enforce or defend dozens of laws that mention race, the Florida House minority leader said Thursday.

“I think he did it, basically, to flaunt that he has the power and to do it to taunt Black and brown people in Florida,” said Rep. Fentrice Driskell, a Tampa Democrat, at a news conference Thursday.

“I think he did it to be inflammatory,” Driskell added, “and I think he did it, frankly, to try to get a big reaction.”

On Monday — a holiday for state workers — Uthmeier issued a news release announcing an opinion identifying more than 80 state laws that he wrote “promote and require racial discrimination on its face.”

“Therefore, I requested, and I am now giving, an official legal opinion in writing on a question of law relating to my official duties,” the opinion states.

The list of laws varies widely, from programs to recruit minority physicians to student scholarships and efforts to encourage minority-owned businesses to bid on government contracts.

Uthmeier, who was appointed to the post by Gov. Ron DeSantis this year, cites heavily from the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision that ruled that race-based affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful. The principles behind that decision apply to “race-based state action occurring in any context,” Uthmeier wrote.

He wrote that he would not defend or enforce “any of these discriminatory provisions.”

A spokesperson for Uthmeier did not return a request for comment.

On Thursday, Democratic lawmakers met in the Capitol to denounce Uthmeier and his opinion and say that Uthmeier was ignoring the difference between remedying harm and creating advantage.

“Eliminating these is not colorblind,” said Sen. LaVon Bracy Davis, an Orlando Democrat. “It’s history blind.”

Rep. Marie Woodson, a Hollywood Democrat, said that the laws Uthmeier targeted include the statute mandating the Department of Health create an Office of Minority Health and Health Equity. Black Floridians have significantly higher maternal death rates and other disparate health outcomes, she noted.

Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami Republican, has a bill this year that would eliminate that office. It has not received a hearing.

Sen. Mack Bernard, a West Palm Beach Democrat, noted that DeSantis removed Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren, citing the prosecutor’s statements that he wouldn’t enforce laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for minors or laws limiting abortion.

“If the attorney general does not want to follow the laws that we passed, I’m declaring that I think that the governor should remove him today,” Bernard said.