A federal court has ruled in favor of Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis by upholding his “STOP WOKE ACT” legislation that bans the promotion of critical race theory and other far-left radical woke ideologies on the state’s college campuses.
Obama nominated U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker ruled that the legislation is not unconstitutional.
“Although this court would not hesitate to compel compliance with its preliminary injunction, this court finds there has been no violation of the injunction at this time,” Judge Walker wrote in his ruling on Thursday.
The legislation, formally known as the “Stop Wrongs To Our Kids and Employees Act,” was objected to by some professors and students who accused the bill fails to comply with a preliminary injunction that outlaws enforcement of a certain portion of the legislation.
The plaintiffs argued in a “motion to compel” field on Wednesday that compliance with a memo from the head of Gov. DeSantis’ Office of Policy and Budget would violate the preliminary injunction order.
In the memo, the state’s Director of Policy & Budget, Chris Spencer had directed institutions of higher education to “provide a comprehensive list of all staff, programs and campus activities related to diversity, equity and inclusion and critical race theory.”
In it’s response, the state’s legal team had argued that the information requested was part of DeSantis’s yearly budgeting process.
Judge Walker, who had previously referred to the Stop WOKE Act as “positively dystopian,” and prohibited imposing sanctions in granting an injunction in early November, after another block in August finally sided with Gov. DeSantis saying this directive doesn’t violate the colleges’ rights.
This comes after the University of Central Florida’s English Department suspended its anti-racism campaign back in July. Then in response to the governor’s legislation unsuspended it.
Orlando Sentinel reporter Skyler Swisher posted pictures of the college’s original suspension which read, “As of July 1, 2022, the statement is suspended as it violates Florida law.”
The English Department's website has now been updated to remove the line saying the statement had been suspended. Unclear as to why that language was added and then removed. Here's what it looked like earlier. pic.twitter.com/UmiSIOFOeJ
— Skyler Swisher (@SkylerSwisher) July 7, 2022
The legislation was introduced in December 2021 and went into effect in July 2022. Since it was signed by Gov. DeSantis, it has led to at least two lawsuits.
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