Florida's Stop WOKE Act restricts diversity training and classroom speech at universities and businesses

Governor Ron DeSantis signed HB 7, the Individual Freedom Act, widely called the Stop WOKE Act, which prohibited certain kinds of workplace diversity training and classroom instruction that the law described as compelling people to believe their race, sex, or national origin makes them inherently privileged, oppressed, or racist. For universities, the law created restrictions on course content in required general education classes, prohibited mandatory DEI training, and gave students and employees standing to sue institutions that violated its provisions. Federal courts subsequently blocked portions of the law's application to university classrooms on First Amendment grounds, with a judge finding that the state couldn't dictate the content of faculty speech in teaching. The blocked portions remained in litigation for years, creating ongoing uncertainty about what Florida professors could legally say in classrooms.