The state of Florida is free to forbid college professors from criticizing the governor in the classroom, an attorney argued on behalf of the state during an appellate court hearing over the Stop Woke Act — adding that those professors are free to seek work elsewhere if they don’t like a legislature-controlled curriculum.
Academic freedom and when the government can insert itself into the classroom were focal points for a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit panel consisting of judges Charles Wilson, appointed by former President Bill Clinton; and Britt Grant and Barbara Lagoa; both appointed by former President Donald Trump.
That response came from Charles Cooper, representing the state, during oral arguments Friday.
“Yes, because in the classroom, the professor’s speech is the government’s speech, and the government can restrict professors on a content-wide basis and restrict them from offering viewpoints that are contrary to … ,” Cooper said before one of the judges interrupted him.
The panel asked Cooper whether the state was OK with students in Florida learning entirely different sets of facts than in states with different politics.
“That’s the genius of federalism, your honor,” Cooper said. “These are state institutions and the states themselves get to make decisions on the content of the courses taught in their schools, and that includes viewpoints, your honor.”
If professors cannot conform to the state’s commands, Cooper said, they can seek states “friendlier to their viewpoints.”
Cooper insisted the state has the ultimate authority to decide course content.
“There is no case – they have cited none and we have found none – that holds that individual professors have a right of academic freedom to override and contradict the course content choices of their university and certainly not of the state legislature,” Cooper said.
The law
The appeal in two challenges to the Stop Woke Act (formally the Individual Freedom Act) centers around higher education instructors who felt the law was restricting their freedom of speech. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the act into law in 2022, making it illegal for schools or businesses to offer viewpoints on certain topics related to race, color, national origin, or sex.
Some of the outlawed viewpoints include that:
- “A person, by virtue of his or her race, color, national origin, or sex is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
- “A person’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, national, origin, or sex.”
- And that “merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color, national origin, or sex to oppress members of another race, color, national origin, or sex.”
Ability to learn
Plaintiff LeRoy Pernell, a professor at the Florida A&M University College of Law, argued in a written statement that the law puts at stake the ability of society “to learn, discuss, and develop tools for combatting the complex issue of racism in our country without being gagged by those who would dictate that only state-approved thought may be promoted.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Florida, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and Ballard Spahr law firm represent the university plaintiffs. Arguing before the court Friday were Leah Watson of the ACLU of Florida and Greg Greubel of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
A federal trial court ruled in August 2022 that the state of Florida was attempting to impose its stance on the existence of systemic racism and sexism in the workplace and public schools in violation of the First and Fourteenth amendments.
“You can’t censor your way to freedom”
Greubel argued on behalf of Adriana Novoa, a history professor at the University of South Florida, that “you can’t censor your way to freedom.”
“It’s much more concerning to give the state legislature the power to redefine objectivity, to tell students what to believe,” Greubel said.
“The only way that you get to any of these terrible hypotheticals that the state advances that people will be teaching — that the holocaust never happened, or any other kind of conspiracy theories — is if the state gets the power to do that; if the state says, ‘Here’s the conspiracy theory and don’t debate it, don’t talk about it, just accept our version of the truth.’ That is something that we’ve never allowed the government to do, especially in the area of higher education.”
Students go to college expecting free debate, Greubel added.
“We do not assume that our students’ minds need to be coddled,” Greubel said. “We assume that our students need to be engaged in very rigorous debate with one another.”
Watson of the ACLU insisted that professors enjoy First Amendment rights in the classroom, although they are not unlimited.
“They’re balanced against the university’s interest in effective teaching on a case-by-case basis,” Watson said. “The university, as I mentioned, has to uphold non-discriminatory academic standards. The line is that they uphold the academic standards. They have to fulfill the mission of the university. What they cannot do is suppress viewpoints.”
She added: “It’s very rare for the legislature to reach so far into the classroom but, when it has happened, the [U.S.] Supreme Court has been clear about the parameters of academic freedom.”
Cooper conceded the law would be unconstitutional if applied to private colleges. The key, he continued, is to balance the interests of public employees against those of the state. Professors are state employees and therefor limited in speech by what the state mandates, he said.
The restrictions apply only in class and conversations outside the classroom if related to teaching, he said.
The purpose of the law is “only to suppress disfavored views,” Watson maintained. “And this is important, because the classroom is peculiarly the marketplace of ideas. It is where you go to debate, critique and discuss contradictory views.”
Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix
Laurel says
So, do you not yet feel the government closing in on you? DeSantis, and his entourage of feeble-minded minions, not only want to control your body, you body choices, your medical choices with your doctor’s and spouse’s input, your religious choices, but also now your mind. What you can and cannot think, or learn. The government dictates what you should know, and you should know nothing else.
If this is still your cup of comforting tea, fine. Join a restrictive cult and leave the rest of us alone.
DeSantis: Stop embarrassing our state to satisfy the White, so called Christian, Nationalism. I’m sick of people making jokes about my state. I’m sick of you and your group making us a laughing stock. The end of your fascist reign cannot come soon enough.
Deborah Coffey says
Amen.
Joe D says
Well…Recently, Governor Ron DeSantis said something to the effect of “Florida is the State where WOKE goes to die”….after this appeals court ruling, I’d like to amend that statement to: “Florida, the State where FREE SPEECH goes to die.”
Given that this ruling is only applicable to STATE Colleges, not PRIVATE Florida Colleges, I guess there is a SMALL difference.
I just LOVE the State’s legal representation saying if professors and teachers are not happy following the State’s restrictions in classroom curriculum, they are FREE to seek employment in a private College or outside the State of Florida… How SMUG!
I can tell you, that’s EXACTLY what QUALITY Educators will gradually do…I give it 5 years! Florida State Colleges will see a SIGNIFICANT brain drain…to other institutions. Shortly afterwards, you are going to see the students that can transfer out of Florida State run Colleges, do so…Not to mention OUT of STATE students (knowing the choke hold, the STATE puts of teachers encouraging OPEN and CHALLENGING discussion in class), will AVOID attendance at Florida State Colleges
Just WAIT until Florida State College graduates start failing STANDARDIZED National Certification tests, because they’ve had “Normal” issues cut out of their coursework (unlike Private Florida Colleges and out of State colleges).
I went to college (a STATE run institution) SHORTLY after the Civil Rights Act/ during the Vietnam War/amidst the Student protests against the military DRAFT.
Talk about LIVELY and OPPOSING discussions in Sociology and History classes! You have NO IDEA !
VERY DIFFERENT POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT than now!
How SAD!
Dan says
Absolutely crazy. If that was the case there wouldn’t have been a revolution here! Facts are given and view points are discussed in any institution. Government should always be challenged, that’s what freedom is!
Laurel says
And remember, DeSantis wanted to “Make America Florida.” What do the followers of Trump and DeSantis not understand? They need to look up Project 2025, and after reading it, really ponder if that’s the country they want, which is very different from the country they have known all their lives, and exactly what our soldiers during WWII fought against, and saved our country and Europe from. That pondering requires some deep concentration without the influences of social media and talk TV. Just their own minds, for a change.
Pogo says
@In the civilized world
…this happened:
The Pope and 100 comedians walk into the Vatican…
Pope Francis also said it was OK to ‘laugh at God’
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-comedians-chris-rock-b2562825.html
JW says
Does the State of Florida understand the difference between education and indoctrination?
This is absurd.
A version of W.E.B. Du Bois (1905!) would be;
Either the State of Florida will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the State of Florida. It looks like Florida goes for the second option, and thereby showing their own ignorance!
The Sour Kraut says
On our way to a totalitarian government. Vote these clowns out now before your vote no longer matters!
Just a thought says
And they call democrats sheep. Republicans follow a man like he is a a god. They parrot everything he says and defend everything he does. Now they want professors to follow a shepherd like he is a god. It’s unbelievable.
Mothersworry says
Yet folks wonder why we can’t get teachers to teach our kids. Ya vote them in and this is what ya get.
Skibum says
Florida’s argument in court is hypocritical and dystopian at the same time. The state’s attorneys want to argue that the state is free to enact spurious laws and regulations that tightly control and censor what state college educators are able to say and do while employed at state run colleges, and at the same time the same attorneys argue that the college educators must lose their constitutional rights to complain or push back against these spurious laws and regulations. The state does not want free speech, they do not allow any discussion or arguments within the educational system that in any way contradicts or questions the Nazi like oppression and iron handed governance that is more akin to what we would expect from Putin or Kim Jong Un. Heil DeSantis! He might as well sign the next administrative rule for the state colleges which mandates that all professors wear the uniform of the Sturmabteilung, commonly known as the brownshirts during Hitler’s rise and takeover of Germany in the 1920s and 30s.
No Political Affiliation says
When will these UN-AMERICAN RADICAL LEFTISTS be stopped from continuing their WAR AGAINST FREE SPEECH? oh wait…*checks notes* …it was actually the GOP all along. The party of small government strikes again. PATHETIC!
Bill C says
FREEDUMB !
David J Castello says
When I first read this article I found it so outlandish that I thought it had to be satire. I am shocked and disgusted to find it is not. The similarities here with the education system in Nazi Germany are too close to ignore. Professors during the Third Reich were forbidden to have views opposing those of the state. This needs to be getting far more publicity.