A federal appeals court has blocked Florida’s ‘Stop WOKE Act’, ruling that the law violates the First Amendment. The decision affirms a lower court’s preliminary injunction against the law, which barred public college and university professors from promoting or endorsing eight specific concepts relating to race, color, sex, or national origin during instruction.

Background

The 2022 law, widely known as the ‘Stop WOKE Act’, prohibited public university instructors from teaching subjects like critical race theory or gender ideology in a way that ‘espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels’ students to believe them. The statute permitted neutral discussion of the concepts as part of a larger course but banned any endorsement under threat of severe penalties, including the withholding of university performance funding and the potential termination of instructors.

The state of Florida defended the restrictions by arguing that because the government funds public universities and pays the professors’ salaries, the instructors’ classroom speech constitutes government speech, giving the state complete control over the message. However, Circuit Judge Britt Grant rejected the state’s position, calling the ‘salary-for-speech’ rule a ‘breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the State’s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry’.

Implications

The majority opinion stated that the First Amendment does not allow the government to mandate a single political viewpoint in a university setting. The court clarified that while public universities and state governments retain the authority to manage workplaces, determine curricula, and ensure professional competence, they cannot implement blanket legislative bans on disfavored political viewpoints.

The ruling leaves the preliminary injunction in place, preventing the Florida Board of Governors of the State University System and university trustees from enforcing the challenged higher education restrictions while the underlying litigation continues.

Original reporting: Tampa Free Press — read the source article.