TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is responding after a federal judge ordered to wind down operations and bar additional detainees from being transferred to “Alligator Alcatraz.”
This comes after U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams sided with environmental groups and a Native American tribe that argued that construction and operations should be stopped until the facility complied with federal environmental laws.
The state quickly responded to the judge’s 82-page order by filing a notice of appeal.
“We knew the minute this judge got the case. We knew what she was going to do,” the governor said.
Williams said she expects the population of the facility to decrease within the next 60 days because additional detainees will have to be transferred to other facilities.
When that happens, she ordered for fencing, lighting, generators as well as sewage receptables to be removed from the site.
“This was a judge that would not give us a fair shake,” DeSantis said. He called Williams an “activist judge” who is “trying to do policy from the bench.”
”Of course, you’re going to hear the same rhetoric from the state that it’s a biased or radical judge. You wouldn’t hear that if they denied the motion for temporary injunction,” said legal expert Bill Sheaffer.
Sheaffer says the South Florida judge will likely have a final hearing, making this temporary injunction—permanent.
Since the state filed a notice of appeal, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear the case, either with a panel of three judges or a block of all 11th Circuit appellate judges. This could be in the next few weeks.
“They’ll expedite this hearing because it’s of great public interest and it’s holding up this construction,” Sheaffer said.
The executive director of Friends of the Everglades said the judge’s order is “big,” but she says it is not a “final win,” noting the appeal process ahead.
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