{"id":332684,"date":"2026-07-08T04:36:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T04:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/332684\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T04:36:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T04:36:31","slug":"us-appeals-court-strikes-down-key-part-of-florida-law-restricting-campus-race-and-gender-discussions-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/332684\/","title":{"rendered":"US appeals court strikes down key part of Florida law restricting campus race and gender discussions | Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal appeals panel struck down a significant chunk of Ron DeSantis<\/a>\u2019s so-called Stop Woke Act<\/a> on Tuesday, delivering another rebuff to the Republican Florida governor\u2019s efforts to stifle free speech in higher education.<\/p>\n

In a scathing order, judges of the 11th circuit court of appeal said by a 2-1 majority that the higher education component of the law \u2013 which prevented college and university professors teaching or sharing thoughts on concepts of race and gender \u2013 breached the free expression rights guaranteed under the US constitution\u2019s first amendment.<\/p>\n

It accused the state of \u201cpuppeteering\u201d: making the educators their mouthpieces by controlling what they can say or teach.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause the government pays the professors\u2019 salaries, Florida<\/a> says, their speech is the state\u2019s speech,\u201d Britt Grant, a Donald Trump-appointed judge who wrote the majority opinion, said. \u201cEmphatically no.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida\u2019s salary-for-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in the very places the state\u2019s own statutes recognize as centers of inquiry \u2013 classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through ideas that are good and bad, easy and hard, ideally getting ever closer to the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

It added: \u201cThe ideas Florida targets may well be noxious. Or maybe not. Either way, in this context the first amendment trusts students to figure it out for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling removes a flagship element of DeSantis\u2019s second-term agenda aimed at perceived leftwing ideology on Florida\u2019s state-run higher education campuses. Passed in 2022, the Stop Woke Act, formally branded the Individual Freedom Act, restricted how race and gender could be taught in schools and colleges, and discussed in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s decision mirrors the same appeals court\u2019s 2024 ruling<\/a> blocking the workplace provision of the law on the grounds that the state was attempting, unconstitutionally, to recharacterize protected free speech as conduct it could ban.<\/p>\n

It reinforces a district court\u2019s November 2022 injunction<\/a> against implementation of the law at Florida\u2019s colleges and universities \u2013 and represents a considerable victory for civil rights and free speech advocacy groups that launched the legal action.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit\u2019s named plaintfill \u2013 LeRoy Pernell, a professor at Florida A&M University\u2019s college of law \u2013 welcomed the ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiatives at the Legal Defense Fund, said the Stop Woke Act was an \u201cegregious\u201d effort by the DeSantis administration to try to force the public higher education system in Florida to adopt the viewpoints of those in power.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWith 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carrie McNamara, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, also hailed the ruling as a victory for free speech.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy upholding the district court\u2019s ruling, the 11th circuit ensured that our system of higher education is guided by the principle of free speech, not government censorship,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

There was no immediate reaction to the ruling from the DeSantis administration or Florida\u2019s unelected attorney general, James Uthmeier, the governor\u2019s former chief of staff elevated by DeSantis in February 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A federal appeals panel struck down a significant chunk of Ron DeSantis\u2019s so-called Stop Woke Act on Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-332684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}