Florida’s DeSantis-backed Senate Bill 266 now sits in the crosshairs of a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida and attorneys on behalf of educators who insist the law is “punishing educators and students for expressing differing and disfavored viewpoints.” 

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law in 2023, barring colleges and universities from using government funds to promote, support or maintain DEI programs or campus activities. 

“Continuing its effort to police the marketplace of ideas, the Florida Legislature again passed vague, viewpoint-discriminatory legislation that broadly restricts academic freedom and imposes the state’s favored viewpoints on public higher education, punishing educators and students for expressing differing and disfavored viewpoints,” the lawsuit, filed last week, said in part.

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Diversity, equity and inclusion, better known by the acronym DEI, is defined as “any program, campus activity, or policy that classifies individuals on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, gender identity, or sexual orientation and promotes differential or preferential treatment of individuals on the basis of such classification,” according to the State University System of Florida.

The practice has been a focal point for conservatives eyeing a return to a more merit-based system and an educational curriculum they argue should be less divisive.

The lawsuit describes the regulations on the subject as “ambiguous, inconsistent, and far too broad to provide any real guidance other than indicating the Legislature’s and the BOG’s (Board of Governors’) intent to disfavor certain speech,” with the educators’ attorneys additionally writing that these regulations, “have left instructors and students fearful for the future of not only education, but also free thought and democracy in Florida.”

The defendants identified in the suit are members of the university system’s Board of Governors and trustees of the universities where the educators work.

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DEI has faced challenges in other educational domains as well. Last year, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted to repeal DEI mandates for public universities across the Tar Heel State. Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas and others similarly took aim at the practice with their own legislation.

DeSantis is among the Republicans who have openly voiced their disdain for DEI and has proudly declared the Sunshine State the place “where woke goes to die.”

President Donald Trump, former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and a plethora of red state governors have also denounced DEI practices. 

Meanwhile, several major companies have rolled back their DEI programs recently.