Federal judge allows teachers' lawsuit to continue against Florida pronoun law

A federal judge is allowing a legal challenge to continue against a Florida law that prevents transgender or nonbinary public K-12 teachers from using their preferred pronouns.

In doing so in his Wednesday decision, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker rejected requests from Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration and local education officials to dismiss it.

Citing First Amendment violations, the Obama-appointed judge had already blocked enforcement of the 2023 law in relation to one of the three teachers suing: Katie Wood, a transgender Hillsborough County educator.

And, in another jab at the state law, Walker wrote that he'd gotten it wrong in a previous ruling that the plaintiffs "failed to sufficiently allege that the challenged pronoun policy discriminates with respect to Plaintiffs’ terms, conditions, or privileges of employment."

After the prior ruling, the teachers filed an amended lawsuit, and the Biden administration's Department of Justice weighed in, writing that the plaintiffs had "alleged sufficient facts" to bring forward claims that federal employment laws were violated by the law.

"This Court concludes that Plaintiffs’ second amended complaint plausibly alleges that, by adopting and enforcing the challenged pronoun policy, Defendants discriminate against Plaintiffs with respect to the terms, conditions, or privileges of their employment based on their sex in violation of Title VII and Title IX," Walker wrote Wednesday, referring to those anti-discrimination laws.

The other plaintiffs in the case are a Lee County teacher using the pseudonym “Jane Doe” and former Florida Virtual School teacher AV Schwandes, who was terminated for violating the law after using gender-neutral pronouns. such as they and them.

The plaintiffs are being represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Southern Legal Counsel and law firm Altshuler Berzon.

They're suing the Florida Department of Education and various officials within it, many of them appointed by DeSantis. The Hillsborough County School Board, Lee County School Board and Florida Virtual School Board of Trustees are also named as defendants. A jury trial for the litigation is scheduled for Feb. 18.

But Walker's courtroom isn't the only arena in this legal battle.

His decision to partly block enforcement of the law is currently under appeal by the state, as reported by the News Service of Florida. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for Sept. 23, dockets show.

Lawsuit filed in December:Trans, nonbinary Florida teachers file lawsuit against anti-pronoun law

Pronoun law blocked:Federal judge blocks teacher pronoun restriction in Florida, citing First Amendment

This reporting content is supported by a partnership with Freedom Forum and Journalism Funding Partners. USA Today Network-Florida First Amendment reporter Douglas Soule can be reached at DSoule@gannett.com.