11th Circuit strikes down part of Florida's 'Stop WOKE Act' as unconstitutional

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Courthouse News Service

July 7, 2026


ATLANTA (CN) — Part of a Florida law limiting discussions on race, gender and diversity unconstitutionally restricts the speech of college professors, a divided 11th Circuit panel ruled Tuesday.“If the First Amendment offers any boundary of protection at all for public university classrooms, this statute crosses it,” U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant wrote on behalf of the majority.

In a 2-1 decision, the Atlanta-based appeals court rejected a request by Florida officials to toss out a federal judge’s ruling preventing the Sunshine State from enforcing a provision of Florida’s Individual Freedom Act, also known as the Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act (Stop WOKE Act).

The law would have restricted state university professors from endorsing certain views on eight concepts related to race, color, national origin or sex during classroom discussions.

The Individual Freedom Act amended the Florida Education Equality Act by creating new speech restrictions barring any “training or instruction that espouses, promotes, advances, inculcates, or compels” students at public state universities to believe any of eight concepts: a “blacklist of ideas,” an attorney for the plaintiffs said.

Read more: https://courthousenews.com/11th-circuit-strikes-down-part-of-floridas-stop-woke-act-as-unconstitutional/

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Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/pernell-v-fl-board-of-governors-of-state-university-11th-cir-ruling.pdf

[spooky3]

1. Thanks. Should have been 3-0!

[calimary]

2. Good.

[RobertDevereaux]

3. The asshole who voted incorrectly...

Is Judge Barbara Lagoa. She is Trump-appointed.

[Cha]

5. Thanks, I wonder who appointed the

other two?

[BumRushDaShow]

8. The other two are another 45 appointee and a Clinton appointee

[Cha]

10. Aww... TY! I bet PEDO thought he

had that one in the bag.

[mdbl]

7. She will compromise her ethics and the law for Dump

I guess her oath meant nothing.

[GiqueCee]

4. The sooner that...

... Rhonda Sepsis is fertilizer, the better off Florida, the nation, and the world, will be. Another diseased creature – better known as a Republican – responsible for untold harm to everyone he was elected to serve.

[Karasu]

6. Florida is making sure a degree from their state isn't worth the paper it's printed on with all these stupid fascist

laws policing education.

[Grins]

9. Florida; not lucky to be part of the 5th Circuit.

Where I’d bet cash money they would have upheld Florida’s Reich-wing authoritarians

[Hieronymus Phact]

11. I guess that means the Constitution is Woke.

Who Knew?