TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — When the National Rifle Association in 2018 challenged a Florida bill prohibiting people under 21 from buying guns, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi was called upon to defend the new law.

Her successor, Ashley Moody, later handled the majority of the legal defense, despite her personal opposition to the gun restriction.

But new Attorney General James Uthmeier said he’ll take a different path if the law comes before the U.S. Supreme Court. He said he won’t defend it.

Uthmeier’s break from his two predecessors has raised some questions about his duties. Florida’s Senate president said earlier this month he was trying to understand the “ramifications” of Uthmeier’s decision.

At least one critic has said it would be hypocritical if Gov. Ron DeSantis didn’t punish Uthmeier for not defending state law when he punished two state attorneys for what DeSantis saw as a failure to act.

Uthmeier is far from the first attorney general nationally to opt against defending a state law. Here’s what to know about what Florida requires of its attorney general, where the gun law itself stands and how it compares to the state attorneys removed from office.

—What are Florida’s requirements?

The job of attorney general isn’t the same across all 50 states. Each state has its own constitution, statute and court precedent.

In Florida, statutes say that the attorney general shall “ appear in and attend to, in behalf of the state, all suits or prosecutions,” but do not say the attorney general must defend all state laws.

Neal Devins, a professor of law at The College of William & Mary, co-authored a Yale Law Journal report in 2015 about how different states have handled the duty to defend the law.

Devins said he didn’t believe that Florida’s statute requires Uthemier to defend the law.

In fact, Florida’s court nearly a century ago issued a ruling saying that if the attorney general thinks a statute is unconstitutional, it is their duty to challenge it to settle the question of whether it’s valid or not, according to a 2018 study from the National Association of Attorneys General.

Uthmeier’s office did not respond to multiple requests for comment on his justification for not defending the law. On social media, he said he believed the law was unconstitutional.

“Men and women old enough to fight and die for our country should be able to purchase firearms to defend themselves and their families,” Uthmeier said on X.

The Florida attorney general’s own website, though, says that the attorney general “defends the constitutionality of statutes duly enacted by the Legislature.”

House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell said Uthmeier’s “job is to defend Florida law,” and said if he didn’t defend the current gun restriction, it would be an “abdication of his duties.”

—What’s happened across the country?

There are multiple examples in U.S. history of Democrats and Republicans choosing not to defend state laws. The issue became especially widespread when multiple state attorneys general declined to defend their states’ bans on same-sex marriage.

Then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder backed that decision, saying that when a law touches on a core constitutional issue, an attorney general should apply scrutiny when deciding whether or not to defend it.

When Florida’s own ban on same-sex marriage was in the courts, Bondi defended it and rebuffed criticism by saying that it was her “obligation as attorney general.”

Devins noted that most attorneys general are elected, and may have higher political aspirations. He said when they have opted against defending a law, it could be a political choice along with something they genuinely believe in.

“Where you see one or the other refuse to defend are going to be on issues that have high political salience,” Devins said, “those are the issues where you play to your base and your base judges you.”

—What is the law Uthmeier won’t defend?

In 2018, Florida changed the law to ban people younger than 21 from buying firearms after a 19-year-old killed 17 students and teachers using a legally purchased AR-15-style weapon.

A federal appeals court recently upheld that law. It’s unclear if Florida’s case will move up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

It could also become irrelevant if the Florida Legislature decides to undo the law by again lowering the rifle-buying age to 18. Federal law already bans the purchase of handguns for people younger than 21.

The Florida House on Wednesday voted for the third year in a row to reverse the age restriction. But GOP Senate President Ben Albritton has been unwilling to say whether or not he would support the change. When recently asked about his stance, Albritton became teary-eyed as he recounted touring the building in Parkland where the massacre happened.

He and House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Republican, voted for the law creating the gun restriction in 2018.

Saikrishna Prakash, a professor of law at the University of Virginia and co-author of the 2015 Yale Law Journal report, noted that the lawmakers who pass a law often aren’t the same lawmakers dealing with legal challenges of it.

“Sometimes the legislature doesn’t care that the statute isn’t being defended because it doesn’t like the statute either,” Prakash said.

Prakash said he doesn’t think there’s any clear-set avenue someone could use to compel an attorney general to act differently, besides the threat of possible impeachment, which is difficult to achieve.

Albritton last week, when asked about Uthmeier’s promise to not defend the gun law, said he was working with staff and legal counsel to understand “what the ramifications of that would be.”

“I’ve got a respect for every branch of government and have not made any decisions about that at this point,” he said.

—What about the removed prosecutors?

Driskell, the Democratic leader, said DeSantis likely won’t try to remove or punish Uthmeier for his statement but said it’s “hypocrisy and a disservice to the people of Florida” when DeSantis has removed two Democratic state attorneys from office for what he said was an abdication of duty.

DeSantis’ office did not answer when asked if he thought Uthmeier was acting appropriately by declining to defend Florida law. It instead pointed to the governor’s comments at a news event where he spoke about his support for loosening some Florida gun laws.

When DeSantis suspended Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren in 2022, he in part cited statements Warren signed pledging not to prosecute violations of abortion or transgender health laws. Warren’s defense said those statements were protected First Amendment speech.

During a federal trial, there was debate over whether Warren’s statements actually constituted a blanket policy not to prosecute. A federal judge deemed that they were not blanket policies, and that DeSantis had punished Warren for speech.

An appeals court sent the case back down, asking a federal judge to reconsider whether DeSantis would have suspended Warren based on his performance and policies around prosecuting low-level misdemeanors.

The courts never ruled on that, though, because Warren’s lawsuit became moot when he lost reelection.

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