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Federal Court Blocks Florida’s ‘Stop WOKE Act’
American Greatness ^ | 17 Mar, 2023 | Eric Lendrum

Posted on 03/18/2023 5:35:44 AM PDT by MtnClimber

On Thursday, a federal appeals court upheld a district judge’s ruling which blocked several parts of the Florida law known as the “Stop WOKE Act.”

As reported by the Daily Caller, the decision by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the ruling in November of 2022 by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker which first blocked portions of the law due to what he considered to be anti-free speech elements.

The legislation, first introduced in 2021 and signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), imposed penalties on public university professors who teach about racial subjects in a way that encourages guilt, blame, or animosity towards another race, with such professors facing the possibility of being fired. The law soon faced backlash from left-wing organizations who accused the law of restricting First Amendment rights, and lawsuits were filed against the law by representatives of the University of South Florida (USF) and the far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In his initial decision, Walker described the law as “positively dystopian,” adding that “it should go without saying that if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

The DeSantis Administration issued a statement defending the law, declaring that “the Stop W.O.K.E. Act protects the open exchange of ideas by prohibiting teachers or employers who hold agency over others from forcing discriminatory concepts on students as part of classroom instruction or on employees as a condition of maintaining employment.”

“An ‘open-minded and critical’ environment necessitates that one is free from discrimination,” the statement added.

The ruling marks one of the biggest legislative setbacks yet for DeSantis, especially as he is the center of speculation that he may run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024, where he would be challenging popular former President Donald Trump.


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: wokeism
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1 posted on 03/18/2023 5:35:44 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

The law should be called “The Anti-Cultural Marxism Act”.


2 posted on 03/18/2023 5:35:53 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Just one more step to the USSC


3 posted on 03/18/2023 5:40:41 AM PDT by Blueflag (Res ipsa loquitur: ad ferre non, velit esse sine defensione)
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To: MtnClimber
Walker described the law as “positively dystopian,” adding that “it should go without saying that if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

Including telling people such facts as masks and social distancing don't work?

That blacks are responsible for the vast majority of murders of blacks - and everyone else - in America?

That the hunter laptop is real? That the mRNA shots have far more adverse effects than other vaccines?

That there are only two sexes and they are determined by either XX or XY chromosomes?

That kind of Liberty?

4 posted on 03/18/2023 5:43:49 AM PDT by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: MtnClimber
In his initial decision, Walker described the law as “positively dystopian,” adding that “it should go without saying that if liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

What happened to the principle that you have a right to speak, but no right to force others to listen?

5 posted on 03/18/2023 5:43:56 AM PDT by MortMan (Don't grow up. IT'S A TRAP!)
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To: MtnClimber

The judge was an Obama judge. So according to him any limit on a schools curriculum as decided by any governing authority whether the governor or school board violates the 1st amendment. That means if as part of a sex ed class an high school teacher wanted to discuss her sex life in graphic detail that would be free speech. It also means that a teacher could tell students that they are inferior because of their ethnic background. He is also (per the judge) free to discard teaching American History and instead give credit for the students protesting the celebration of Thanksgiving. The school also must permit students to bully, degrade, mock, tease, harass, and silence other students and teachers since that too must be free speech.

The court is an unapologetic ass.


6 posted on 03/18/2023 5:48:33 AM PDT by lastchance (Credo.)
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To: lastchance; MtnClimber

I should correct myself. If the ruling only dealt with the parts of the legislation that dealt with the this at the University level and can see that as far as teaching it being a free speech issue. However the problem is that often teachers who do teach from a viewpoint of CRT or DEI often silence the speech of students who do not agree. That is what has to be stopped. A free exchange of ideas and robust debate used to be an accepted part of college education.


7 posted on 03/18/2023 5:53:02 AM PDT by lastchance (Credo.)
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To: Blueflag

An activist, leftist, democrat judge stopped the law.


8 posted on 03/18/2023 5:54:30 AM PDT by joma89 (Buy weapons and ammo, folks, and have the will to use them.)
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To: MtnClimber

This tired FL Obama judge is the Demonrats go to Radical.
He is overturned Monthly .
Why does the Media Not Report that Fact but
spins gloom and doom for us. It getting obnoxious.


9 posted on 03/18/2023 5:59:40 AM PDT by ncalburt ( Gop DC Globalists are the evil)
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To: MtnClimber

I think free speech is the way to go. A professor should teach as he wishes. Students should be free to not take that class and fulfill that requirement, if it is a requirement, in other ways.


10 posted on 03/18/2023 6:17:01 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory. )
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To: MtnClimber
Only Democrat governors are allowed to create rules for employees paid with state funds.

Perhaps government just needs to stop funding education at all levels. State colleges and universities have long been a scam for the few. (Full disclosure, I took advantage of that scam long ago). Only 36% of Americans graduate college. A significant portion of those people have had their college educations subsidized by government since there are only a handful of schools that refuse government funding. Most other Americans have other types of education or none at all, but they pay taxes to support the 36%. Quite honestly, a lot of what is taught in colleges is detrimental to society as a whole, which further weighs the yoke on the necks of those paying the bills.

Education has become political weapon. When public funds cannot be effectively managed and they are used against the populace, then those dollars should remain in people’s pockets.

11 posted on 03/18/2023 6:35:25 AM PDT by ConservativeInPA ("How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly." )
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To: MtnClimber

“On February 16, 2012, President Barack Obama nominated Walker to serve as District Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida.”

Osama Obama’s plan to fundamentally transform the US is still working.


12 posted on 03/18/2023 6:49:14 AM PDT by antidemoncrat
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To: MtnClimber

The far left turd rollers are always whining about the SCOTUS when their sh*t for brains, kangaroo courts and judges are ten times as bad. The Federal courts are the hard left Nazi wing of the far left Dung beetle party.


13 posted on 03/18/2023 7:03:09 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("Elections have consequences, stolen elections have catastrophes." - J.B. Shurk)
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To: MtnClimber

The far left, fag Feral “judges” have decided they, not the voters, will decide what life in this septic tank is going to look like.


14 posted on 03/18/2023 7:04:58 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer ("Elections have consequences, stolen elections have catastrophes." - J.B. Shurk)
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To: Sirius Lee

There is a vast difference between “telling people things they don’t want to hear” and requiring people to buy in (or act as if they buy in) to those things to obtain a degree. THAT is coercion.

And the opposing positions are forbidden from being presented. So how does THAT square with “ the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”?


15 posted on 03/18/2023 7:08:53 AM PDT by motor_racer ("We're gonna punish our enemies, and we're gonna reward our friends" - Barak Obama)
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To: ncalburt

Thx...good to know


16 posted on 03/18/2023 7:13:02 AM PDT by goodnesswins (The Chinese are teaching calculus to their 3rd graders wh to sile ours are trying to pick a pronoun.)
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To: xzins

As he wishes?? Not if it amounts to indoctrination.


17 posted on 03/18/2023 7:23:42 AM PDT by Sacajaweau ( )
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To: antidemoncrat

“Osama Obama’s plan to fundamentally transform the US is still working.”

Particularly when Lindsay Graham and other Republican Senators rubber stamp every judicial nominee of a Democrat president.


18 posted on 03/18/2023 7:33:27 AM PDT by Soul of the South (The past is gone and cannot be changed. Tomorrow can be a better day if we work on it.)
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To: xzins
Students should be free to not take that class and fulfill that requirement, if it is a requirement, in other ways.

There lies the problem. I agree that free speech is the way to go. But state university classrooms are often "captive audiences" filled with students who are required to take the class to graduate, and risk a GPA killing grade if they dare to challenge the professor's free speech with their own free speech.

19 posted on 03/18/2023 7:41:35 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
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To: Sacajaweau

Free speech goes both directions


20 posted on 03/19/2023 2:41:00 AM PDT by xzins (Retired US Army chaplain. Support our troops by praying for their victory. )
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