Judge Permanently Blocks Workplace Training Portion Of Florida’s Racist Stop WOKE Act

Ron DeSantis is foiled again.

A federal judge has permanently blocked the workplace training portion of Florida’s controversial Stop WOKE Act because it violates the Constitution’s First Amendment rights about free speech, the News Service of Florida reports.

On July 26, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker submitted a two-page order granting a permanent injunction against the workplace training part of the law. The specific portion lists eight race-related ideologies and would have banned diversity- and race-related training in private workplaces.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction issued by the Obama-appointed judge in 2022, just months after Governor Ron DeSantis signed it into law. Florida’s GOP lawmakers touted the bill as a way to fight against “wokeness,” diversity efforts, and critical race theory, the idea that racism is systemic in U.S. institutions.

The training aspect of the Stop WOKE Act was first challenged by Honeyfund, a Florida-based franchisee of Ben & Jerry’s, Primo Tampa, workplace-diversity consultant firm Collective Concepts, and a Clearwater-based technology company that hosts wedding registries. The plaintiffs claim they were forced to censor themselves “on important societal matters” and hindered “from engaging employees in robust discussion of ideas essential for improving their workplaces.”

Attorneys representing the DeSantis administration argued the act does not restrict speech but admitted to prohibiting businesses from forcing their employees to listen to “certain speech against their will” or risk losing their jobs.

Walker also issued a separate preliminary injunction against a portion that would restrict the way race-related concepts can be taught in universities. In May 2023, students were forced to receive new textbooks after the Black Lives Matter movement and imagery of George Floyd were removed. Even the mention of people kneeling during the national anthem, a gesture made famous by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, was struck from an elementary school textbook.