An attorney representing education officials appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis Friday told a federal appeals court that Florida lawmakers, if they so choose, can prohibit professors from criticizing the governor in the classroom.
“In the classroom, the professor’s speech is the government’s speech, and the government can restrict professors on a content-wide basis and restrict them from offering viewpoints that are contrary,” said Charles Cooper of the Cooper & Kirk law firm, responding to a judge posing that scenario.
The remarks came during oral arguments before a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals over a key provision of DeSantis’ much-touted “Stop WOKE Act,” which limits discussion of race, gender and other topics in state university classrooms.
That provision was blocked by Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of Tallahassee, who called it “positively dystopian.” The circuit court last year denied the state’s request to undo the block before it reached a final decision on the case.
Friday’s argument, held in Miami, focused on the line between academic freedom and the state government’s ability to control institutions it funds and oversees.
