13 state attorneys general ask Supreme Court to uphold Florida’s Stop WOKE Act

Twelve state attorneys general have joined Florida in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling blocking enforcement of the Stop WOKE Act at public universities.

Arrest and charges

They argue that public university professors’ classroom speech should be treated like other public employees’ speech on the job and subject to regulation by their government employers.

The law, formally called the Individual Freedom Act, restricts public educators from teaching or endorsing certain concepts about race and discrimination.

It allows those concepts to be discussed objectively without endorsement.

The lawsuit was brought by University of South Florida professors and the First Amendment Forum at USF.

Charges and court proceedings

The attorneys general filed a brief supporting Florida’s petition for the court to take up the case.

The state filed it after a divided panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling blocking enforcement of the law.

Florida’s petition asks the justices to decide whether professors have First Amendment protection for speech they deliver as part of their classroom duties.