US appeals court strikes down key part of Florida law restricting campus race and gender discussions

A federal appeals panel on Tuesday struck down a significant portion of Florida's so-called Stop Woke Act, dealing another rebuff to Governor Ron DeSantis's efforts to restrict free speech in higher education. In a 2-1 ruling, judges of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals said the higher education component—which prevented professors from teaching or sharing thoughts on concepts of race and gender—violated the First Amendment.

The majority opinion, written by Trump-appointed Judge Britt Grant, accused the state of "puppeteering" educators by controlling what they can say or teach. "Because the government pays the professors' salaries, Florida says, their speech is the state's speech," Grant wrote. "Emphatically no." She called the law a "breathtaking assertion of power" to ban unpopular ideas from public discourse in classrooms meant to be centers of inquiry.

The ruling removes a flagship element of DeSantis's second-term agenda targeting perceived left-wing ideology on state-run campuses. Passed in 2022 as the Individual Freedom Act, the law restricted how race and gender could be taught in schools and colleges and discussed in the workplace. Tuesday's decision mirrors the same court's 2024 ruling that blocked the workplace provision.

The decision reinforces a district court's November 2022 injunction against enforcing the law at Florida's colleges and universities—a major victory for civil rights and free speech groups that filed the lawsuit. Plaintiff LeRoy Pernell, a law professor at Florida A&M University, welcomed the ruling, saying the court "stopped the erasure of topics" with real implications for students.

Jin Hee Lee of the Legal Defense Fund called the Stop Woke Act an "egregious" attempt by the DeSantis administration to force the public higher education system to adopt the viewpoints of those in power. Carrie McNamara of the ACLU of Florida also hailed the ruling as a victory for free speech. There was no immediate reaction from the DeSantis administration or Attorney General James Uthmeier.