A federal judge on Thursday blocked a key portion of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) "Stop WOKE" Act intended to police speech and classroom content at state colleges and universities.
Calling it "positively dystopian," District Judge Mark Walker said the bill violated the First Amendment rights of both students and faculty, who — under the 2022 law — had been given standing to sue educational institutions for exposing them to potentially uncomfortable material, such as the 1619 Project on American racial history.
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When he unveiled the bill in late 2021, DeSantis touted it as providing "businesses, employees, children, and families tools to fight back against woke indoctrination," citing critical race theory, a branch of legal academic inquiry, as "state-sanctioned racism." During his midterm election night victory speech, DeSantis boasted that under his leadership "we fight the woke in the Legislature. We fight the woke in the schools. We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to the woke mob."
"Florida," he insisted, "is where woke goes to die."
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