THE rIGHT IS THE lEFT...:

[R]ufo was an "excited" early proponent of Florida's "Stop WOKE Act," which prohibits both public universities and private employers from engaging in certain types of "discriminatory" speech. In an abuse of state power right out of the Marcusian playbook, the Stop WOKE Act imposed a sweeping speech code on faculty in Florida's public universities, prohibiting instruction that "espouses, promotes," or "advances" eight ideas related to "race, color, national origin, or sex" that are often promulgated by critical theorists.

In court defending the law, Florida's lawyers have repeatedly conceded that the Stop WOKE Act would prohibit on-campus arguments in favor of policies like affirmative action while allowing arguments that oppose it. In short, the Stop WOKE Act does exactly what Rufo criticizes the critical theorists for advocating: censoring the opposition.

Marcuse would have found Florida's legal arguments familiar, too. In one of the state's briefs, it argues, "Even if the First Amendment did apply here, Florida's compelling interest in stamping out discrimination based on race and other immutable characteristics amply justifies any burden on speech the Act may impose." That's precisely the argument he and other critical theorists have advanced for decades.

But the First Amendment doesn't tolerate the government gagging free speech on campus. In the 1980s and 90s, for example, the courts repeatedly struck down restrictive campus speech codes that the critical theorists proposed under the guise of anti-discrimination measures. And after a lawsuit by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (where I work), the same fate looks likely for the Stop WOKE Act. The law has already been put on hold by a federal judge, who called it "positively dystopian" and criticized Florida officials for arguing that the state has "unfettered authority to muzzle its professors in the name of 'freedom.'"

By using the same tools as the critical theorists, Rufo is worse than hypocritical: He's self-defeating. The theorists' failed speech codes would gain new life if Florida's defense of the Stop WOKE Act prevails.

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