Judge permanently blocks part of Florida’s ‘Stop WOKE Act’

(CNN) — A federal judge has permanently blocked the restrictions Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Republican lawmakers placed on handling race-related issues in workplace training – part of the controversial Individual Freedom Act, better known as the “Stop WOKE Act.”

The act was one of several bills the Republican governor signed in 2022 as part of his war on “woke ideology.” It was intended to prevent teachings or mandatory workplace activities that suggest a person is privileged or oppressed based on their race, color, sex or national origin.

On Friday, Chief US District Judge Mark Walker issued a two-page order granting a permanent injunction against the law’s workplace training provisions. The order says the law “violates free speech rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution.”

Walker first issued the preliminary injunction to block the state from enforcing prohibitions on mandatory workplace activities and trainings in August 2022, saying the act “discriminates on the basis of viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment and is impermissibly vague in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

The judge’s Friday order came after a federal appeals court in March upheld the injunction, agreeing part of the law infringed on employers’ free speech rights.

At the time, DeSantis’ office issued a statement disagreeing with the ruling, describing it as upholding the idea that “companies have a right to indoctrinate their employees with racist and discriminatory ideologies.”

The challenge to the law was brought in June 2022 by several Florida businesses, represented by Protect Democracy, which describes itself as a “nonpartisan, anti-authoritarianism group.”

“(This is) a powerful reminder that the First Amendment cannot be warped to serve the interests of elected officials,” Shalini Goel Agarwal, counsel for Protect Democracy, said in a post on X on Friday. “Censoring business owners from speaking in favor of ideas that politicians don’t like is a move ripped straight from the authoritarian playbook.”

DeSantis has championed the “Stop WOKE Act” as standing up against what he called “indoctrination.” He frequently referred to the law during his unsuccessful run for president, with the slogan that Florida was where “woke goes to die.”

The term has turned into a polarizing word in the US political climate, describing awareness – particularly about history, oppression and social justice issues – for some, while being a pejorative used to denounce progressive action and certain teachings about race for others.

DeSantis did not oppose the motion to make the March ruling permanent, but during a news conference Monday in Tampa, he reiterated Florida’s right to provide protections for employees.

“If they are doing woke training, which is basically discriminating against folks on the basis of race, you have the right to opt out of that. It’s not a question of what the company can say,” he said. “They can say whatever they want.”

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CNN’s Shawn Nottingham contributed to this report.