Federal judge temporarily blocks teacher pronoun restriction in Florida

A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked a law in Florida that barred a transgender teacher from using pronouns that don’t align with her birth sex.

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted transgender teacher Katie Wood a temporary injunction against the law, writing in a strongly worded opinion that it violates her First Amendment rights.

“Once again, the State of Florida has a First Amendment problem,” Walker wrote. “Of late, it has happened so frequently, some might say you can set your clock by it.”

“This time,” Walker continued, “the State of Florida declares that it has the absolute authority to redefine your identity if you choose to teach in a public school. So, the question before this Court is whether the First Amendment permits the State to dictate, without limitation, how public-school teachers refer to themselves when communicating to students. The answer is a thunderous ‘no.’”