A US District Court judge for Northern Florida has stopped the implementation of Florida’s “Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees” Act–the Stop WOKE Act–from going into effect, saying the law blatantly violates people’s rights, the Associated Press reports.
The DeSantis dictum demands that no one in a workplace or school can require people to participate in training or lessons that make them feel uncomfortable about their race, with specific emphasis on protecting the fragile characters of white children and privileged adults who, DeSantis believes, do not have the moral fiber to learn white people committed racist acts, like slavery.
In his 44-page decision, Judge Mark Walker, an Obama appointee, said that the law is a direct attack on the First Amendment, with DeSantis demanding the state determine what can and cannot be taught to employees or students and punishing people whose view oppose DeSantis’s.
“If Florida truly believes we live in a post-racial society, then let it make its case,” Walker wrote. “But it cannot win the argument by muzzling its opponents.”
The hold comes in a case brought by Honeyfund, a Clearwater, Florida-based online service to help engaged couples and others collect cash gifts or gift cards, which claimed the law damaged its ability to properly train employees, particularly on how to be aware of cultural differences between people of different races and ethnicities. It was joined by several other private companies in the case.
“Diversity in the workplace is good for business,” Honeyfund CEO Sara Margulis tweeted. “Diversity training often addresses concepts like systemic racism, unconscious bias, and privilege. This is why @Honeyfund challenged this illegal restriction on free speech.”
This is one of three cases challenging DeSantis’s “Stop WOKE” law, with the others being brought by students and educators–one from college professors and students and the other by elementary and high school teachers, students and parents–claiming the law is a direct violation of their First Amendment rights because it codifies government censorship.