Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses attendees during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit, on July 22, 2022, in Tampa, Fla. | Phelan M. Ebenhack/AP Photo

By Andrew Atterbury

08/18/2022 06:02 PM EDT

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge on Thursday blocked Florida from enforcing a key aspect of the state’s new law restricting what Gov. Ron DeSantis calls “woke” workplace trainings about race.

In a 44-page decision, Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker slammed Florida’s “Stop-WOKE” Act, criticizing its policies as “bordering on unintelligible” as he granted a temporary injunction on the grounds the law violates the First Amendment.

The ruling was heralded as a “major victory for free speech” by the group of businesses who sued the state, but that win could be short lived with the DeSantis administration sure to appeal.

“In the popular television series Stranger Things, the ‘upside down’ describes a parallel dimension containing a distorted version of our world,” Walker, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, wrote. “Recently, Florida has seemed like a First Amendment upside down.”

The “anti-woke” legislation, FL HB 7 (22R), or the Individual Freedom Act, was passed earlier this year by Florida’s Republican-led Legislature and backed by DeSantis. It expands Florida’s anti-discrimination laws to prohibit schools and companies from leveling guilt or blame to students and employees based on race or sex, taking aim at lessons over issues like “white privilege”...

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