NO ONE HATES THE CONSTITUTION MORE THAN MAGA:

When Ron DeSantis became Florida's governor in 2019, there was reason for optimism about an expansion of freedom of expression in the state. In April of that year, he called on Florida's colleges and universities to adopt the "Chicago Statement." It's a resolution that my organization, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), endorses as the "gold standard" of institutional commitments to free speech on campus because it establishes, for example, that "it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive." That move built on the progress made by passage of the state's speech-protective Campus Free Expression Act in 2018, which codified that same principle.

But things started to go downhill last year when Gov. DeSantis signed the "Individual Freedom" Act (more commonly known as the "Stop WOKE Act") into law. Ironically, the law abridges individual freedom by restricting how faculty at state institutions may speak about controversial subjects like race and sex in the classroom. It lists several concepts that faculty may not "espouse" or "advance," such as the view that an "individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion." That could, taking just one example, make it unlawful for professors to present arguments in favor of affirmative action or reparations for slavery. Whatever one thinks of the merits of those ideas, it's well within a professor's academic freedom to discuss, debate, and take positions on them in class.

FIRE sued to challenge the Stop WOKE Act's higher education provisions on First Amendment grounds. In defending the law, Florida took the astonishing position that faculty at public universities are mere government mouthpieces, rather than scholars with constitutionally protected academic freedom, as the Supreme Court has recognized. That freedom is essential to a university's fundamental mission to produce and disseminate knowledge.

In a ruling last November, a federal court agreed with FIRE (and the ACLU and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, which filed separate suits) and halted enforcement of key parts of the Stop WOKE Act. The court called the law "positively dystopian" and explained that the "First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark." Of course, the state has appealed that decision.

But a court defeat didn't stop Florida lawmakers from stepping up efforts to purge campuses of ideas they dislike. Last month, Florida state legislators introduced House Bill 999 and its Senate counterpart Senate Bill 266. Both are essentially the Stop WOKE Act on steroids. That's right--they're seeking to expand on a law declared unconstitutional by a federal court by adding more First Amendment violations into the mix.

The new legislation, which Gov. DeSantis previewed in January, would impose even more limits on the freedom of students and faculty to discuss and explore ideas in college classrooms and beyond. 

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