Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody sued an official leading the Federal Emergency Management Agency and a staff member this week for skipping homes in disaster relief areas if the residence had a Trump sign.
In a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Ms. Moody, a Republican, argues Marn’i Washington instructed her FEMA employees to skip homes with Trump signs in Lake Placid, Florida, following the damage from Hurricanes Helene and Miton.
Ms. Washington was fired by FEMA after information came to light of her allegedly partisan directive. She claims that she is a “scapegoat” and that similar conduct happened in North Carolina.
“While the facts will continue to come out over the weeks and months it is already clear that Defendant Washington conspired with senior FEMA officials, as well as those carrying out her orders, to violate the civil rights of Florida citizens,” Ms. Moody argued in her filing.
She charges that under 42 U.S. C. 1985, FEMA and its workers conspired to interfere with the civil rights of others.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks, a Clinton appointee.
A FEMA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
News broke earlier this week that FEMA workers were skipping homes that showed support for President-elect Donald Trump in disaster relief areas.
Ms. Washington said the directive to skip homes with Trump signs was due to hostility facing federal workers and that directives were also made in other areas with Harris and Walz signs.
According to the lawsuit filed by Ms. Moody, workers would document when they skipped Trump homes, noting, “Trump sign no entry per leadership.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said he was launching an investigation into the matter.
Ilya Shapiro, director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute, said the legal issues are about violating basic government policy to treat everyone equally.
“Public officials who say they won’t provide services to people — who pay their salaries with their taxes — based on something as arbitrary as their political views is a violation of all sorts of rules and regulations. Whoever is responsible for developing such a policy should worry not just about losing their job or being sued, but about criminal liability,” Mr. Shapiro said.
Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law, said the revelations were appalling.
“Some states do prohibit discrimination on the basis of political identity, but the federal government does not,” he said.
Florida and North Carolina, which saw most of the damage from the recent hurricanes, do not have political affiliation as protected classes.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
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