Federal judge issues temporary injunction on new law that limits expression on campuses, by Kelsey Leffingwell, Spectrum News

Students, Friends, and Colleagues:

Great news! The moral of the story is that some laws shouldn’t be laws to begin with—especially when they collide with the U.S. Constitution. Judge David Ezra’s injunction against Texas’ SB 2972 is a reminder that free speech isn’t a privilege granted by administrators or legislators; it’s a right protected by the First Amendment. When lawmakers overreach in the name of “order,” they risk silencing the very democratic expression universities exist to nurture. The courts, in this case, have drawn an important line in defense of both students and democracy itself.

A big thanks to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression for intervening.

The injunction is temporary right now. Hope it becomes permanent.

-Angela Valenzuela


Federal judge issues temporary injunction on new law that limits expression on campuses
BY Kelsey Leffingwell Austin
PUBLISHED 11:41 AM CT Oct. 15, 2025

In this Sept. 27, 2012, file photo, students walk through the University of
Texas at  Austin campus near the school's iconic tower in Austin, Texas.
 (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

AUSTIN, Texas — On Oct. 14, U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra issued a temporary injunction against parts of Texas’ new law that limits expression on campuses.

The University of Texas System’s restrictions on expression, including overnight activities, speakers, sounds and drums, during the semester’s last two weeks will be suspended by the injunction.

In the lawsuit, Ezra argues that the law goes against students’ First Amendment rights.

“Plaintiffs allege that the Overnght Expression Ban and End-of-Term Bans threaten their protected expression,” Ezra wrote.

A lawsuit was filed on Sept. 3 by The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) “on behalf of student musicians, journalists, political organizers, and religious students.” The lawsuit aimed to prevent the enforcement of Senate Bill 2972.

SB 2972, which imposes a ban on “expressive activities” at public universities, went into effect on Sept. 1. The bill bans the activities between the hours of 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.

The new law, according to FIRE, will grant universities the right to penalize students at night for activities such as wearing political hats, writing an op-ed, attending candlelight vigils and more.

“This law gives campus administrators a blank check to punish speech, and that authority will inevitably be used to target unpopular speech,” said FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh. “Administrators have plenty of ways to prevent disruptive conduct that do not involve such a broad censorship mandate.”

SB 2972, passed in the regular session this year, reversed a 2019 Texas law about free speech on campuses.

The full injunction can be found below.

VICTORY: After FIRE lawsuit, court halts enforcement of key provisions of the Stop WOKE Act limiting how Florida professors can teach about race, sex

 Friends:

Considering that academic freedom is under attack in our nation's universities right now, cheers to the plaintiffs represented by Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) in this victory against Gov. Ron De Santis' "Stop WOKE Act."

Without academic freedom, we are not free. Plain and simple.

-Angela Valenzuela

VICTORY: After FIRE lawsuit, court halts enforcement of key provisions of the Stop WOKE Act limiting how Florida professors can teach about race, sex

by 

• FIRE

 

November 17, 2022

FIRE Plaintiffs Adriana Novoa (left) and Sam Rechek (right).

Today a federal court halted enforcement of key parts of Florida’s “Stop WOKE Act” in the state’s public universities, declaring that the law violates the First Amendment rights of students and faculty.

The court ruled that the “positively dystopian” act “officially bans professors from expressing disfavored viewpoints in university classrooms while permitting unfettered expression of the opposite viewpoints.” The court invoked George Orwell to drive home that if “liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.” 

In September, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a lawsuit challenging Florida’s Stop WOKE Act. FIRE’s lawsuit, on behalf of a professor, student, and a student group, argued that the higher education provisions of the act unconstitutionally chill free expression and mandate faculty censorship on the state’s college campuses.

“It is a happy day not only for Sam and me, but for the institutions of this country,” said FIRE plaintiff Adriana Novoa, a University of South Florida history professor of 17 years. “I hope that the courts will defend the existence of a public education that cannot be manipulated by politicians to push any ideology, now and in the future.”

In the wake of the Stop WOKE Act — which restricts instruction on eight concepts related to “race, color, national origin, or sex” in college classrooms — colleges warned faculty that the law prohibits endorsing “any opinion unless you are endorsing an opinion issued by the Department of Education,” limits offering a “critique of colorblindness,” and requires faculty to censor guest lecturers. 

The law is not only unpopular — it’s also unconstitutional, as today’s ruling makes clear. “[T]he First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark.”

To defend its position, Florida argued that faculty members speak on behalf of the government, which can “prohibit the expression of certain viewpoints.” The state also agreed that its theory meant that if Florida’s government changed hands, it “could prohibit . . . instruction on American exceptionalism because it alienates people of color and minorities because it suggests . . . that American doesn’t have a darker side that needs to be qualified.” As FIRE pointed out, that argument is at odds with every federal appellate court to have considered the question.

“Faculty members are hired to offer opinions from their academic expertise — not toe the party line,” said FIRE attorney Adam Steinbaugh. “Florida’s argument that faculty members have no First Amendment rights would have imperiled faculty members across the political spectrum.”

Judge Walker rejected the state’s arguments that faculty speak for the state — that is, that “so long as professors work for the State, they must all read from the same music.” The court made clear: “The First Amendment protects university professors’ in-class speech.”

COURTESY PHOTOS FOR MEDIA

Novoa is joined in the lawsuit by student-plaintiff Sam Rechek, head of USF’s First Amendment Forum. Its members cannot engage in a full and frank discussion of contested matters — race and its role in both history and modern society are among the most fraught issues in the United States — if they fear that a professor’s response to their questions may be reported to administrators or government officials for formal action.

“I’m excited to hear that the Stop WOKE Act has been put on hold,” said Rechek. “While there is still more work to be done, every vindication of free speech and academic freedom is worth celebrating. That said, I hope that future proceedings will produce similar victories for speech. The Stop WOKE Act doesn’t just need to be enjoined. It needs to be struck down.”

In contrast to other lawsuits challenging the act filed by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union, FIRE’s suit is limited to higher education and does not take a position on the truth of the prohibited concepts of race and sex. Rather, FIRE takes the viewpoint-neutral approach that faculty retain the right to give an opinion — whether that opinion supports or opposes the prohibited concepts in the Stop WOKE Act. 

“College campuses are spaces for debate, not dogma,” said FIRE attorney Greg H. Greubel. “Americans recognize that the government cannot be an all-powerful force permitted to control every word uttered by a professor in the classroom. Today’s ruling is an important first step in ensuring that professors’ First Amendment rights are respected by the state of Florida.”

The plaintiffs in FIRE's case are represented by Greg Greubel, JT Morris, and Adam Steinbaugh of FIRE, and Gary Edinger of Benjamin, Aaronson, Edinger & Patanzo is serving as local counsel.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending and sustaining the individual rights of all Americans to free speech and free thought — the most essential qualities of liberty. FIRE recognizes that colleges and universities play a vital role in preserving free thought within a free society. To this end, we place a special emphasis on defending the individual rights of students and faculty members on our nation’s campuses, including freedom of speech, freedom of association, due process, legal equality, religious liberty, and sanctity of conscience.