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

The federal appeals panel rejected a significant portion of Ron DeSantis’ purported claims. Stop Woke Act On Tuesday, he again lashed out at the Republican Florida governor’s efforts to curb free speech in higher education.

In a scathing decision, 11th circuit appeals court judges said by a 2-1 majority that the higher education component of the law — which bars college and university professors from teaching or sharing ideas about concepts of race and gender — violated free speech rights guaranteed under the first amendment of the U.S. constitution.

He accused the state of “puppetry”: turning educators into their mouthpieces by controlling what they can say or teach.

“Florida is saying that because the government pays professors’ salaries, their speech is the state’s speech,” said Judge Britt Grant, who wrote the majority opinion and was appointed by Donald Trump. Absolutely not.

“Florida’s pay-per-speech rule is a breathtaking assertion of power that bans unpopular ideas from public discourse in places deemed in the state’s own statutes to be centers of inquiry — classrooms where students are trusted to puzzle through good and bad, easy and difficult ideas, ideally moving ever closer to the truth.”

He added: “The ideas that Florida is targeting may very well be harmful. Or they may not be. Either way, the first amendment in this context is relying on students to figure this out on their own.”

The decision eliminates a flagship element of DeSantis’ second-term agenda, which targeted perceived left-wing ideology on Florida’s state-run higher education campuses. The Stop Woke Act, passed in 2022, was officially called the Individual Freedom Act and restricts how race and gender can be taught in schools and colleges and discussed in the workplace.

Tuesday’s decision echoes a 2024 decision by the same appeals court that blocked the law’s workplace provision on the grounds that it sought to redefine unconstitutionally protected free speech as conduct that the state could prohibit.

Strengthens the district court’s November 2022 decision interim injunction This ruling against enforcement of the law at colleges and universities in Florida represents a significant victory for civil rights and free speech groups who brought legal action.

Florida A&M University law school professor LeRoy Pernell, the plaintiff in the case, welcomed the decision.

“We are thrilled that the court stopped the erasure of issues that have real implications for our students, allowing them to learn, discuss, and develop tools to combat the complex issue of racism in our country without muzzling those who dictate that only state-approved thought can be supported,” she said in a statement.

Jin Hee Lee, director of strategic initiatives at the Legal Defense Fund, said the Stop Woke Act is a “terrible” effort by the DeSantis administration to force Florida’s public higher education system to adopt the perspectives of those in power.

“It is no coincidence that this state law aims to censor Black and LGBTQ+ perspectives that are currently under attack,” Lee said.

“With this decision, the federal appeals court made clear that Florida cannot actively erase its history or lived experiences of discrimination without running afoul of our constitution.”

Carrie McNamara, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, also hailed the ruling as a victory for free speech.

“In affirming the district court’s decision, the 11th circuit ensured that our higher education system is guided by the principle of free speech, not government censorship,” he said.

“Our classrooms should 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.”

There was no immediate reaction to the decision from the DeSantis administration or Florida’s unelected attorney general, James Uthmeier, the governor’s former chief of staff who was appointed by DeSantis in February 2025.