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Wokeness and critical race theory and Marxist indoctrination can continue to run rampant in Florida colleges and universities after a federal court ruled Thursday to keep in place an injunction against enforcing the “Stop WOKE” Act. The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals denied a request by Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration to please let it stop some woke, even just a little, while the case is being decided.
In November, US District Judge Mark Walker determined the law, which would restrict how colleges and universities can teach about race and gender, was unconstitutional as all fuck, because what part of free speech don’t you understand? In a remarkably fun decision to read, Walker called the law “positively dystopian” and cited George Orwell in his order, adding that the bill’s formal name, the “Individual Freedom Act,” was a dandy example of doublespeak.
As we said at the time, it’s awfully refreshing to see an invocation of Orwell by someone who has actually read and understood the dear old lifelong socialist who thought basic human decency might yet have a chance against totalizing ideologies.
In yesterday’s 26-word order, a three-judge panel of the appeals court turned down the state’s request to stay the injunction Walker issued in November. It also directed the court clerk to “treat any motion for reconsideration of this order as a non-emergency matter,” just in case Florida decided to get shirty. In an act of judicial decorum, the appeals panel did not add “Neener-neener, you fascists.”
The 2022 law, Florida HB 7 (22R), is yet another of those copy-pasted bills against teaching “divisive concepts” in public schools, but tweaked to apply to higher education and to businesses that offer training on implicit bias and the like. (A separate lawsuit already put on hold the bill’s restrictions against private businesses.)
As Politico ‘splains, the law expanded Florida’s existing anti-discrimination law to protect the sensitive feelings of anyone who might have conniptions when told that other people have been discriminated against, how dare you. The bill prohibits institutions of higher education from ever causing students to feel sad in lessons about race or sex.
Inspired by DeSantis, it takes aim at lessons over issues like “white privilege” by creating new protections for students and workers, including that a person should not be instructed to “feel guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” due to their race, color, sex or national origin.
As we always point out, OF COURSE no one would ever teach that white children are guilty for things like slavery or Jim Crow, but the problem with these “divisive concepts” laws is that they’re written so vaguely that any teaching about racism or sexism could potentially get an instructor or school sued and penalized.
The law was challenged last year in a lawsuit brought by Dr. Adriana Novoa, a history prof at the University of South Florida, and by student Sam Recheck, who are represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a national campus free speech nonprofit. Supporting briefs have been filed by the usual woke suspects like the ACLU and groups supporting academic freedom, even for people who will never ever vote for Ron DeSantis, and how is that even fair?
FIRE issued a statement yesterday saying
“Professors must be able to discuss subjects like race and gender without hesitation or fear of state reprisal. Any law that limits the free exchange of ideas in university classrooms should lose in both the court of law and the court of public opinion.”
DeSantis spokesdork Bryan Griffin said the administration will win for sure, and look at how those dopey judges only decided the actual matter before them instead of something else:
“The Court did not rule on the merits of our appeal. The appeal is ongoing, and we remain confident that the law is constitutional.”
Gov. DeSantis himself hasn’t yet said anything about the decision, probably because he’s still scooping gobs of pudding into his mouth with his gross fingers. Does he wash first? Or after? Who even knows? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
[Politico / WFLA / Law & Crime / Photo: Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons License 2.0]
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