A victory for the First Amendment: DeSantis' pet project--the Stop WOKE Act--is shredded
News and commentary for Floridians and other Americans concerned about the future of our democracy
By J.C. Bruce
In a victory for the First Amendment—and sanity—a federal appeals court has struck down Florida’s onerous “Stop WOKE Act” that sought to censor university classrooms from discussing race and gender issues.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit wasn’t timid in its condemnation of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ pet project to propagandize students.
“Florida’s salary-for-speech rule is 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—classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.”
The court went further:
It doesn’t matter if DeSantis and the Legislature agree or disagree with the ideas. “Either way, in this context the First Amendment trusts students to figure it out for themselves.”
In other words, no whitewashing issues that some politicians may find politically inconvenient.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it bears remembering that Florida is a state that still celebrates “heroes” of the Civil War—Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and Confederate soldiers. It’s a state that, under former governor and now U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, banned the use of the phrase “climate change.” It’s a state that had the temerity to rename the Gulf of Mexico to appease our mad ruler in Washington. It’s a state famous for its “Don’t Say Gay” laws and aggressive book banning. It’s a Republican-run state that doesn’t hesitate to push “alternative facts”—among them that slavery wasn’t such a bad thing.
So, yes, this court ruling declaring there are limits to how much the state can manipulate what is taught in college classrooms is a huge victory.
It follows earlier court decisions from the same appeals court banning other provisions of the so-called “Stop WOKE Act,” in which Florida tried to prohibit private employers from training that promoted concepts such as racism, bias and privilege. (Yes, that’s right, the same Republicans who ballyhoo free enterprise tried to censor private businesses on how to train their own employees.)
“This ruling sets a strong precedent that higher education cannot be limited to the whims of politicians,” said Leah Watson, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. “All students and educators deserve to have a free and open exchange about ideas without government control. Students can’t fight racial discrimination that they don’t see; training and instruction is key to empowering future leaders to pursue racial justice.”
This most recent ruling comes in Pernell v. Lamb, a lawsuit filed in 2022 on behalf of a group of Florida public university professors who contended their ability to teach had been restricted by this law.
Reaction to the ruling
“We are thrilled the court has stopped the erasure of topics that have real implications for our students, allowing them to learn, discuss, and develop tools for combatting the complex issue of racism in our country without being gagged by those who would dictate that only state-approved thought may be promoted,” said LeRoy Pernell, a Florida A&M University College of Law professor and the named plaintiff in this lawsuit.
“The ‘Stop W.O.K.E Act’ is an egregious example of widespread efforts across the country, most notably in Florida, to force the public higher education system to adopt the viewpoints of those in power. Thankfully, we have a judicial system to protect First Amendment rights and ensure that professors have the academic freedom to foster the type of learning environment where all students can learn and thrive,” said Jin Hee Lee, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Legal Defense Fund.
“It is no coincidence that this state law aimed to censor the perspectives of Black people and LGBTQ+ people, the very same people who are currently under attack. With this decision, the federal appeals court has made clear that Florida cannot actively erase their history of discrimination or their lived experiences without running afoul of our Constitution.”
“By upholding the district court’s ruling, the Eleventh Circuit ensured that our system of higher education is guided by the principle of free speech, not government censorship,” said Carrie McNamara, senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Florida. “Our classrooms are meant to be rooms of curiosity, creativity, and learning. When we stifle this kind of critical thinking, we risk losing our education system as we know it.”
What the court said
Here’s what Judge Britt Grant, nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump, wrote for the majority in a 52-page ruling:
“The State asks us to consider its rules a means of targeting discrimination,” Grant wrote. “But hearing an idea you disagree with is not discrimination; it is an opportunity to come up with a better idea, or maybe even change your mind.”
“Because the government pays the professors’ salaries, Florida says, their speech is the State’s speech. Emphatically no. The Florida defendants cannot ‘put together half a donkey and half a camel, and then ride to victory on the synthetic hybrid’.”
The state attempted to argue it was trying to “protect its ‘most cherished ideals,’” Grant wrote, but the judges didn’t buy that argument.
“Though the government has plenty of ways to promote its own viewpoint, puppeteering every university professor in the state is not one of them.”
Related:
Eleventh Circuit crushes Florida’s ‘Stop WOKE Act’ at state universities
Federal Appeals Court Strikes Down Florida’s Unconstitutional Classroom Censorship Law
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J.C. Bruce
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Every once in awhile, someone says something, or does something, that reaffirms my pride in our Constitution and (much of) our nation's commitment to it. This is one of those times.
Again, the courts are saving our democracy and freedoms!