Ron DeSantis' “Stop WOKE Act” looked ridiculous when it passed. A pair of court rulings on the Florida law makes it look even worse now. (via MaddowBlog)
, “Normally, the First Amendment bars the state from burdening speech, while private actors may burden speech freely. But in Florida, the First Amendment apparently bars private actors from burdening speech, while the state may burden speech freely.”A federal judge on Thursday halted a key piece of the “Stop-WOKE” Act touted by Republican Gov.
While August’s ruling took aim at DeSantis’ efforts to regulate private speech, Thursday’s decision focused on Republican efforts to regulate what scholars can say in higher education. “’It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen,’ and the powers in charge of Florida’s public university system have declared the State has unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of ‘freedom,’” Walker wrote, citing George Orwell’s novel “1984.”
The jurist added, “The law officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints,” wrote Walker. “Defendants argue that, under this Act, professors enjoy ‘academic freedom’ so long as they express only those viewpoints of which the State approves. This is positively dystopian.”
The state will, of course, appeal the district court ruling. But as DeSantis eyes a national campaign with the far-right backing, Republicans should probably keep in mind that the governor’s apparent hostility toward the First Amendment isn’t faring well under legal scrutiny.
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