S.C. media and First Amendment advocates must remain vigilant as new 'hurricane' brews in Florida

• DeSantis has signed three laws, including the “Anti-WOKE Act,” which seek to limit public schools in Florida at all levels—including both K-12 and colleges and universities—as well as private and public employers from teaching or training about race and diversity in certain ways. The laws specifically target lessons and training that discusses privilege or oppression based on race, or whether someone “bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress” due to U.S. racial history. In schools, the new laws initially led to removal of some books from school library and classroom shelves while they were reviewed, although DeSantis denied that the laws were leading to widespread “book bans.” In November 2022, a federal judge enjoined the provisions applicable to colleges and universities, saying the law was “positively dystopian.” On March 16th the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the state of Florida’s emergency appeal of this ruling.
• DeSantis also signed a new law changing the composition of the 50-year-old authority that governs and provides municipal services for Walt Disney World, in retaliation for the Walt Disney Company’s public statements opposing a new Florida statute limiting teaching and discussion of sex and sexuality in schools. Opponents of the statute have labeled it as the “don’t say gay” law. But regardless of the subject and appropriateness of the statute, the changes to the authority were clearly in retaliation of the company exercising its First Amendment right to oppose the statute. This itself is a violation of the First Amendment, with the U.S. Supreme Court holding that “(o)fficial reprisal for protected speech ‘offends the Constitution (because) it threatens to inhibit exercise of the protected right.’” Read more