A Florida judge ruled on Thursday that a law supported by Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis that restricts race-based discussion and analysis in business and education is unconstitutional.

In a 44-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker of Tallahassee ruled that the “Stop WOKE” act violates the First Amendment and is unlawfully ambiguous.

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The decision was made in one of three lawsuits filed against the Stop Woke Act. It was filed by private entities, including Clearwater-based Honeyfund.com, who claim that the law infringes on their free speech rights by emphasising diversity, inclusion, bias elimination, and workplace harassment prevention. Companies with 15 or more employees who engage in such practises may face civil lawsuits.

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What is anti-woke law?

The “anti-woke” legislation was passed earlier this year by Florida’s Republican-led Legislature and supported by DeSantis.

It expands Florida’s anti-discrimination laws to make it illegal for businesses and schools to blame or accuse students or employees based on their race or gender. It aims to teach students and employees about issues such as “white privilege” by establishing new safeguards, such as the rule that no one should be forced to “feel guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress” because of their race, colour, sex, or national origin.

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The law forbids teaching or business practises that assert that members of one ethnic group are inherently racist and should feel guilty for past actions committed by others. It also prohibits the notion that a person’s status as privileged or oppressed is inextricably linked to their race or gender, or that discrimination is necessary to achieve diversity.

After George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, the term started to be used more frequently in schools and workplaces all around the US. This was in response to the murder.

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Conservatives see critical race theory as less of an academic inquiry into truth and history and more of an imposition of a divisive ideology based on Marxism that divides people into oppressor and oppressed categories based on their race.