Appeals Court Upholds Florida Pronoun Law For Teachers

A Florida law that bars public school teachers from using pronouns that do not correspond to their sex at birth does not violate teachers’ free-speech rights under the First Amendment, a federal appeals court said.

In a 2-1 decision, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded on July 2 that the 2023 state law prohibiting public K-12 teachers from providing a student with their preferred pronouns if the titles do not correspond to their sex does not violate First Amendment rights. That’s because teacher Katie Wood, in this instance, is speaking as a government employee, not a private citizen, the appeals judges said

Citing judicial precedent, the court said that in resolving incidents involving this “private-citizen / government-employee tension,” the teacher must first prove she was speaking as a citizen, rather than in her role as a government employee, and was discussing a matter of public, not private, concern. Then she must show that her interest in making the statements in question have to outweigh “the state’s interests in promoting the efficient delivery of public services.”

“Wood’s case, we conclude, founders on the first prong of step one,” the appeals court said. “She cannot show, with respect to the expression at issue here, that she was speaking as a private citizen rather than a government employee.”