A federal appeals court ruled Monday against Florida’s Individual Freedom Act, a law signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis aims to curb “woke” ideologies in the workplace and schools.
A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit said the so-called “Stop the Wrongs to our Kids and Employees Act,” or “Stop WOKE Act,” which prevents businesses from teaching program and diversity lessons, are illegal and fly in the face of the US Constitution because they are based on views held by the state government.
“The State of Florida seeks to prevent employers from holding mandatory meetings for their employees if those meetings endorse views that the state finds offensive. But the meetings in both topics are allowed if the speakers endorse views that the state agrees with, or at least do not object to,” wrote Judge Britt C. Grant, speaking on behalf of the three-judge panel . “This law, as Florida admits, draws its distinctions based on perspective — the worst of dividing lines under the First Amendment.”
“We can’t agree, and we reject the latest attempt to regulate speech by redefining it as conduct. Florida may be exactly right about the nature of the ideas it targets. Or it may not. . Either way, the merits of these views will be decided in the buzzing marketplace of ideas rather than a codebook or a courtroom.” Grant added: “The First Amendment prevents the government from putting its thumb on the scale.”
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A federal appeals court ruled Monday against the “Stop WOKE Act,” signed into law by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Fox News Digital)
Grant, who was appointed by former President Trump, argued that regardless of any merit behind Florida’s law, the way it was written actually violated the First Amendment.
“Even if we assume that the action served the interest of combating discrimination in some way, the breadth and scope of it would doom it,” Grant said. “Banning speech on various political topics is bad; banning speech on various kinds of political views is worse.”
“Here, speech is not regulated incidentally as a means of restricting discriminatory conduct – restricting speech is the point of the statute. That important distinction sets this Act apart from Title VII as an outright violation to the First Amendment,” the opinion continued.
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A district court previously blocked its implementation, prompting an initial appeal by the governor’s office.
Fox News Digital reached out to DeSantis’ executive office but did not immediately receive a response.
Signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on HB 7, known as the Stop Woke bill, in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, on April 22, 2022. (Daniel A. Varela/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The law states that employers may not subject “any individual, as a condition of employment,” to “training, instruction, or any other necessary activity that promotes, promotes, promotes, incites, or coerces ” on certain beliefs about race, gender or other “diversity. , equity, and inclusion” issues.
The law calls certain views on these issues “hate speech” and says businesses or schools requiring employees or students to know its content amounts to “ridiculous discrimination.”
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In addition, the law prohibits government-funded schools that seek to “indoctrinate or encourage students to a particular viewpoint inconsistent with” these principles.
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“That many people find these views deeply troubling does not mean that by banning them Florida is targeting discrimination,” Monday’s opinion read. “By limiting its restrictions to a list of ideas designated as offensive, the Act targets speech based on its content. And by prohibiting only speech that endorses any of those ideas, it punishes certain viewpoints – the greatest sin in the First Amendment.”
In addition to Grant, Judges Charles R. Wilson and Andrew L. Brasher ultimately ruled that Florida’s law “contains an illegal per se ban on speech that the state disapproves of.”
Inside a courtroom overlooking the gavel. (iStock)
The plaintiffs in the case – Honeyfund.com, Florida-based Ben & Jerry’s franchisee Primo Tampa, and Collective Concepts – argued that the law’s mandatory-meeting provision violated their rights to free speech and described the law as particularly vague.
In a statement posted online Monday, Primo Tampa called it a “victory for my freedom of speech.”
“Today’s decision is a victory for my freedom of speech and that of all other business owners, but it is also a victory for the free market: businesses remain free to respond to the needs of visitors and team member,” said Antonio McBroom, CEO of Primo Tampa . “The government clearly has no right to patrol my workplace for words that some politicians don’t like. And the government clearly has no right to change its preferences for visitors and team members of any business.”
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Protect Democracy, the group representing the plaintiffs, similarly said Monday’s ruling was “a major victory for free speech in the workplace.”
Welcome to Florida sign (Jim Steinfeldt/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
“Speech codes have no place in American society, and elected officials have no business censoring the speech of business owners simply because they disagree with what is being expressed,” said by Shalini Goel Agarwal, Protect Democracy counsel, in a statement.
And, “Prohibiting employers from speech that powerful politicians don’t want is a step straight out of the authoritarian playbook. Today is a good day for the First Amendment and the ability of American businesses to speak freely .”
