Federal Appeals Court Rules Against Florida’s Stop WOKE Act

Republican presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis campaigns on the eve of the Iowa caucuses in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Jan. 14, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

A federal appeals court struck down a Florida law that banned businesses from requiring their employees to participate in workplace diversity training promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion (DEI) in the state.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on March 4 unanimously upheld the District Court’s ruling that previously blocked portions of the law relating to prohibiting Critical Race Theory training in workplaces.

Judge Britt C. Grant said the Florida law violated the free speech protections of the Constitution’s First Amendment by barring discussions about topics the state finds “offensive” but not others.

“By limiting its restrictions to a list of ideas designated as offensive, the act targets speech based on its content. And by barring only speech that endorses any of those ideas, it penalizes certain viewpoints, the greatest First Amendment sin,” she said.

In April 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed FL HB7, also known as the “Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids Act” or the Stop WOKE Act. The legislation aims to provide businesses, employees, children, and families with the tools they need to “stand up against discrimination and woke indoctrination.” Much of the legislation was designed to “take on both corporate wokeness and Critical Race Theory.”

When signing FL HB7, Mr. DeSantis said, “No one should be instructed to feel as if they are not equal or shamed because of their race. In Florida, we will not let the far-left woke agenda take over our schools and workplaces. There is no place for indoctrination or discrimination in Florida.”

In the 22-page opinion, the panel disagreed with the argument that the Florida law restricts conduct, not speech.

“We cannot agree, and we reject this latest attempt to control speech by recharacterizing it as conduct,” Judge Britt C. Grant wrote. “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 clanging marketplace of ideas rather than a codebook or a courtroom.”

However, Mr. DeSantis’s office dismissed the court’s decision, saying “We are reviewing all options on appeal going forward.”

“We disagree with the Court’s opinion that employers can require employees to be taught—as a condition of employment—that one race is morally superior to another race,” Julia Friedland, deputy press secretary for Mr. DeSantis’s office, told The Epoch Times. “The First Amendment protects no such thing, and the State of Florida should have every right to protect Floridians from racially hostile workplaces.”

Protect Democracy, an advocacy group representing three Florida businesses in the case welcomed the court’s decision as a victory for workplace freedom of speech.

“Speech codes have no place in American society, and elected officials have no business censoring the speech of business owners simply because they don’t agree with what’s being expressed,” Protect Democracy counsel Shalini Goel Agarwal said in a statement. “Today is a good day for the First Amendment and the ability of American businesses to speak freely.”

Stop WOKE Act

Specifically, the Stop WOKE Act prohibits the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools and expands Florida’s anti-discrimination laws by requiring corporations to keep it out of the workplace. It states that subjecting an employee or student to an activity that “promotes, advances, or compels individuals to believe discriminatory concepts” is deemed unlawful discrimination.

According to the legislation, the concepts of discrimination stipulate that an individual should not be made to feel guilty for actions committed by others in the past based on their race, sex, color, or national origin. Furthermore, their moral character or status as privileged or oppressed should not be determined by these attributes.

The legislation also deems it unlawful if a person is “discriminated against or receives adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion,” by virtue of their race, color, national origin, or sex.

In November 2022, a lower court also blocked parts of the act that limit how college and university professors can teach courses about race.

Mr. DeSantis is known for his fight against progressive ideology in his state, particularly the DEI movement. Last week, the University of Florida decided to fire all DEI staff members. The move is in response to new rules that ban expenditures related to DEI initiatives in Florida’s college system. The decision is driven by a rule introduced in January by Florida’s Board of Education, which limits the use of public funds for DEI initiatives in the state’s college system.

Katabella Roberts and Reuters contributed to this report.