Key Points
US district court Judge Mark Walker quoted the first line of George Orwells classic novel 1984, as he struck down parts of the Florida law that prohibited colleges from teaching eight topics related to race..
The states argument is like the thirteenth chime of a clock: you not only know its wrong, but it causes you to wonder about everything you heard before," Walker explained in the notes of his 2022 decision..
According to the libertarian-leaning Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), 94 of the 486 schools it monitors had speech codes that substantially restrict free speech" and another 324 schools maintain policies that impose vague regulations on expression." ..
Worried that diversity policies will lead to left-leaning indoctrination," several Republican-run states have passed bills to restrict discussion of structural racism and injustice, and to ban diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes at colleges..
He bragged that Florida had eliminated" DEI programmes and scrubbed its public universities of indoctrination," and then announced that the state university system had waived its rules to make it easier for Jewish students who have a well-founded fear of antisemitic persecution at their current postsecondary institutions" to transfer to Florida colleges..
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