The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a public school teacher was not entitled to a preliminary injunction against a Florida law which states that “an employee or contractor of a public K-12 educational institution may not provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to his or her sex.” The Eleventh Circuit vacated the preliminary injunction and remanded the case back to the district court.
In Wood v. Florida Department of Education, an algebra teacher at a Florida public high school in Hillsborough County, challenged Fla. Stat. § 1000.071 which prohibits him from using pronouns not consistent with his biological sex in the classroom. Wood was born a biological male but now identifies as a woman. Wood argued the law violated his First Amendment right to free speech and sought a preliminary injunction to prevent its enforcement. The United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida granted Wood a preliminary injunction, reasoning that the use of preferred pronouns constituted speech as a private citizen and the interest in expressing gender identity outweighed the state’s interest in promoting workplace efficiency.
The Eleventh Circuit disagreed with the district court and held that Wood had not demonstrated a substantial likelihood that the law infringed free speech rights. The court concluded that when Wood used preferred pronouns in the classroom, it was as a government employee, not as a private citizen. Therefore, Wood’s speech was not protected under the First Amendment in this context.
In Judge Kevin Newsom’s majority opinion, he referred to the Coach Kennedy case when he wrote, “The First Amendment’s protections extend to public school teachers and students, ‘neither of whom shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. But a teacher’s right to speak is not without limits. One reason is that ‘in addition to being a private citizen,’ a teacher is ‘also a government employee paid in part to speak on the government’s behalf and convey its intended messages.’”
In 2020, Wood began using gendered pronouns such as “she,” “her,” and “hers” and wrote “Ms. Wood” and “she/her” on the classroom whiteboard and syllabi and in communications with students. Wood also wore a pin that said “she/her.” Then in 2023, Florida enacted the Florida law regarding personal titles and pronouns.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Florida law is clear that employees, contractors, or students of a public K-12 educational institution may not be required to refer to other people using their preferred personal titles or pronouns if it does not correspond to their biological sex. In this case, the teacher’s speech was government speech, not private speech, and there is no First Amendment claim against the law.”
