Federal appeals court blocks Florida’s higher-education restrictions in ‘Stop WOKE’ law
The Facts
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit ruled 2-1 against Florida’s higher-education provisions in the Stop WOKE Act on Tuesday.
- The ruling concerns public colleges and universities, where the law restricted how professors could teach or endorse certain concepts related to race, sex, gender, and bias.
- The appeals court upheld a lower court order that had blocked enforcement of the higher-education provisions in 2022.
- The majority held that the higher-education provisions violate the First Amendment by restricting professors’ speech in the classroom.
- The court rejected Florida’s argument that because the state pays professors, their classroom speech is fully controlled by the government.
- The law was signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2022 and is formally known as the Individual Freedom Act, commonly called the Stop WOKE Act.
- The decision does not strike down the entire law; reporting on the ruling says the K-12 portions remain in effect.
- The case could continue, with Florida able to seek rehearing by the full 11th Circuit or ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision.
Context
What part of the law did the court block?
The ruling applies to the higher-education portion of the 2022 law, covering public colleges and universities and limiting how professors could teach certain concepts about race, sex, gender, and bias NYT,Miami Herald,Court House News Se….
Why did the appeals court rule against Florida?
The majority said the higher-education provisions violate the First Amendment because they restrict professors’ classroom speech and amount to viewpoint-based limits on what can be taught NYT,CNBC,Washington Examiner. The court also rejected Florida’s argument that professors’ speech is simply government speech because the state pays their salaries CNBC,Inside Higher Ed | ….
What happens next?
The higher-education provisions remain blocked under the lower court injunction that the appeals court upheld Washington Examiner,Inside Higher Ed | …. Florida can still ask the full 11th Circuit to rehear the case or petition the U.S. Supreme Court to take it up CNBC,Taegan Goddard's Po….
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- The ruling blocked Florida from enforcing its higher-education speech limits for now, while leaving the rest of the law and further appeals still in play.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about a First Amendment check on state control of university teaching, or about a limited ruling that preserves institutional restraint and further review.
How left and right read it
This ruling matters because the court said Florida’s higher-education provisions violated the First Amendment by restricting how professors could teach about race, sex, gender, and bias in public colleges and universities. Just as important, the court rejected the idea that state payment gives the government full control over classroom speech — a real check on political power over public education, even with the rest of the law still partly in effect.
What stands out here is that the court’s ruling is limited: it leaves the rest of the law in place, including the K-12 portions, and Florida can still seek further review. For readers who care about institutional restraint and orderly process, that matters because even a high-profile setback did not become a wholesale judicial rewrite, and the state still has lawful avenues to press its case.
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Independent coverage (33)
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