TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A group of Florida university professors on Thursday filed a federal lawsuit challenging a 2023 state law and related regulations that prevent colleges from spending money on diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, saying the restrictions are “punishing educators and students for expressing differing and disfavored viewpoints.”
The lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP on behalf of six professors, alleges that the restrictions violate educators’ and students’ speech rights and the chilling expression in public universities. It targets the 2023 law (SB 266) and rules passed last year by the state university system’s Board of Governors.
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“Continuing its effort to police the marketplace of ideas, the Florida Legislature again passed vague, viewpoint-discriminatory legislation that broadly restricts academic freedom and imposes the state’s favored viewpoints on public higher education, punishing educators and students for expressing differing and disfavored viewpoints,” the lawsuit said.
The restrictions ban funding for programs or campus activities that advocate for diversity, equity, or inclusion or that engage in “political or social activism.” One of the rules defines DEI as “any program, campus activity, or policy that classifies individuals based on race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation and promotes differential or preferential treatment of individuals based on such classification.” Colleges and universities risk losing funding if they violate the restrictions.
The lawsuit alleged that the regulations’ definitions are “ambiguous, inconsistent, and far too broad to provide any real guidance other than indicating the Legislature’s and the BOG’s (Board of Governors’) intent to disfavor certain speech.”
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The restrictions “have left instructors and students fearful for the future of not only education but also free thought and democracy in Florida,” the professors’ lawyers wrote.
The rules have “stripped hundreds of university courses” from being designated as “general education” courses, according to the lawsuit. Universities also have denied scholarships and research money to faculty and students who have received it in the past.
The 2023 law and the rules were part of efforts by Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature to wipe out diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in schools and workplaces. The restrictions were built on a controversial 2022 law that curtailed the way race-related issues can be taught in schools. A lawsuit filed by professors challenging the 2022 law remains pending at the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
DeSantis has railed against “woke” education and has taken other steps, such as engineering an overhaul of New College of Florida. That overhaul included appointing conservative trustees, with a DeSantis ally, Richard Corcoran, installed as New College president.
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Professors at Florida International University, the University of Florida, and Florida State University are plaintiffs in the new lawsuit filed in the federal Northern District of Florida. The named defendants are members of the university system’s Board of Governors and trustees of the three universities where the professors work.
The law and regulations “together have disrupted” educators’ careers “and restricted the activities and education of faculty and students,” the lawsuit said.
The plaintiffs include Jean Queeley, an associate professor of anthropology and African and African Diaspora Studies at FIU. Two of Queeley’s courses that were taught for over a decade were stripped of their general education designation after the passage of the law.
Sharon Austin, a University of Florida political science professor who also is a plaintiff, is the former director of the school’s African American Studies Program. The lawsuit said university officials in April denied funding to allow Austin to attend an international conference hosted by the Diversity Abroad organization, although she had received funding the previous year. The university’s provost office also flagged two of Austin’s courses — “Politics of Race” and “Black Horror and Social Justice” for not complying with the law, according to the lawsuit.
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Austin attempted to address the university’s concern that the courses violated the law’s text about “identity politics and systemic racism,” but was told in December that neither course was approved for general-education designation.
“Professors have been forced to alter their course titles and course descriptions in an attempt to conform with the recent legislation, a task that they have taken on without clarity on how to comply with the law,” the professors’ lawyers argued.
Thursday’s lawsuit also alleged that the DEI restrictions violate a 2021 law, known as Florida’s “Campus Free Expression Act.” The law is aimed at protecting the expression of diverse viewpoints at colleges and universities.
“By allowing discussions of only those viewpoints that the state agrees with, defendants are shielding faculty members, students, and staff” in violation of the free-expression law, the professors’ lawsuit said.
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