Back to Markets
Stocks● Neutral
11th Circuit Blocks Florida's Stop WOKE Act, Tees Up Supreme Court Fight
A divided 11th Circuit panel ruled Florida's Stop WOKE Act violates the First Amendment, blocking enforcement at public universities. The ruling sets up a potential Supreme Court fight over academic freedom.
Continue with
A divided federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Florida's Stop WOKE Act, which restricted how professors teach about race and gender at public universities, violates the First Amendment. The 2-1 decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit keeps the law blocked while litigation continues.
The ruling is the latest legal setback for one of Governor Ron DeSantis's signature culture-war policies. The law, formally the Individual Freedom Act, barred instruction that "espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels" students to believe concepts tied to race, sex, national origin, or privilege. Those included the idea that a person is inherently racist or sexist because of their race or sex, or that they should feel guilt for past actions by members of the same group.
Judge Britt Grant, a Trump appointee, wrote for the majority that Florida's position was a "breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse" in university classrooms. She rejected the state's argument that professors' speech belongs to the government because they are paid by the state.
"If the First Amendment offers any boundary of protection at all for public university classrooms, this statute crosses it," Grant wrote.
The majority said the case forced the court to address a question the Supreme Court has left open: how much First Amendment protection public university professors have when teaching. "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," Grant added.
Judge Barbara Lagoa, another Trump appointee and a former Florida Supreme Court justice picked by DeSantis, dissented. She argued the state acted within its authority to control what professors may endorse in state-sponsored classrooms.
"The First Amendment protects all viewpoints in the public square, whether they are conventional or controversial," Lagoa wrote. "But it does not compel all viewpoints to be worthy of state-sponsored endorsement."