DeSantis’ “Stop Woke” law restricting race-based higher education has been blocked by a judge

Tallahassee District Judge Mark Walker issued an injunction against the so-called “Stop Woke” law in a ruling that called the legislation “positively dystopian.”

The law prohibits educational or business practices that claim that members of an ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilty for the past actions of others. It also contradicts the notion that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by their race or gender, or that discrimination is acceptable in order to achieve diversity.

“Our professors are critical to a healthy democracy, and the state of Florida’s decision as to which viewpoints are worth exploring and which must remain shadowed has implications for all of us,” Walker wrote. “If our ‘priests of democracy’ are not allowed to shed light on challenging ideas, democracy will die in the dark.”

The ruling is at least a temporary setback to the powerful Republican governor’s agenda to combat what he calls the “awakened ideology” of liberals and critical race theory, a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism. DeSantis won a landslide re-election to a second term this month after a campaign that heavily focused on cultural issues.

The governor has often said that decisions that stop his legislative priorities are likely to be reversed by Florida appellate courts, which are generally more conservative. A DeSantis spokesman said they would appeal the verdict.

“The Stop WOKE Act protects the open exchange of ideas by prohibiting teachers or employers, who have authority over others, from forcing discriminatory concepts on students as part of instruction or on workers as a condition of continued employment,” said Bryan Griffin, press secretary by DeSanti’s secretary.

In his lengthy verdict, Walker quoted from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984 and wrote: “‘It was a brilliantly cold day in April and the clock struck thirteen,’ and those responsible for Florida’s public university system have declared the state has full authority to muzzle his professors in the name of ‘freedom’.”

Judge Walker issued a similar ruling on the law in August, preventing it from going into effect in corporations. The law is also subject to another legal challenge by a group of K-12 teachers and one student.

The governor began pushing for the law late last year, and the Republican-controlled legislature passed it during the 2022 legislative session.

“What you’re seeing now with the rise of this awakened ideology is an attempt to really delegitimize our history and delegitimize our institutions, and I view awakened as a form of cultural Marxism,” DeSantis said when he first introduced the law published. “They really want to tear at the very fabric of our society.”

Critical race theory was developed in the 1970s and 1980s in response to what scholars saw as a lack of racial progress after the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. It focuses on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they serve to perpetuate white dominance in society.

Conservatives have rejected critical race theory, arguing that the philosophy racially divides American society and aims to rewrite history to make white people believe they are inherently racist.

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