The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit has rejected Florida’s request to let it enforce the “Stop WOKE Act”—officially known as the Individual Freedom Act—while the state appeals a lower court ruling that partially enjoined the statute.
Republican Gov. signed the law. Ron DeSantis signed the law in April 2022. The law forbids private employers and university professors to endorse certain concepts related race or other types of identity. The statute was the subject of several lawsuits. A diversity consultant and several employers challenged the clause that said private employers could not require employees attend training or activities that promote any one of the eight concepts.
Chief U.S. Circuit Judge Mark E. Walker writes for the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida Tallahassee DivisionThen it was published an injunction This provision should not be enforced. Walker wrote that “Normally, the First Amendment prohibits the state from burdening speech.” However, private actors can freely burden speech. “But in Florida, however, the First Amendment seems to prohibit private actors from burdening Speech, while the State may freely burden Speech.”
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