A Florida Bill To Censor Professors Just Got Even Worse

A Florida bill introduced last month that aims to suppress ‘woke’ ideas in public colleges and universities just got worse. On Wednesday, legislators filed an updated version of the measure, backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), that seeks to limit academic freedom in Florida’s public colleges. The new version of the bill expands the list of concepts and ideas that will be singled out for unconstitutional censorship.

H.B. 999 was first introduced last month by Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola). Gov. Ron DeSantis proposed the legislation in January, stating in a press release that he hopes to align state higher education curriculum with the “values of liberty and the Western tradition” by “eliminating politicized bureaucracies like DEI.”

The bill seeks to make several dramatic changes to Florida’s public colleges. The legislation places restrictions on what faculty can teach and effectively eliminates tenure, making it easier to dismiss faculty who teach forbidden concepts. The law would also restrict what universities can promote in campus programs and activities.

The legislation immediately received sharp backlash from civil liberties groups. “These censorial filters are unconstitutional,” wrote Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression attorney Adam Steinbaugh last month. “As FIRE has explained many, many times in our defense of faculty across the political spectrum, the First Amendment and academic freedom p