Federal Judge Tosses Lawsuit Against Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is on a roll — handily taking on Disney, hostile CNN reporters and “The View“ in recent months. On Tuesday, DeSantis scored another win when a federal judge dismissed a suit seeking to strike down Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law.

Judge Allen Winsor dismissed the suit brought forward by the LGBTQ+ advocacy groups Equality Florida and Family Equality. Winsor’s 25-page ruling notes that “the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to proceed but neglected to assess the constitutionality of the case,” according to Fox News.

The Tampa Bay Times noted an excerpt from the ruling: 

“The principal problem is that most of plaintiffs’ alleged harm is not plausibly tied to the law’s enforcement so much as the law’s very existence. Plaintiffs contend the law’s passage, the sentiment behind it, the legislators’ motivation, and the message the law conveys all cause them harm. But no injunction can unwind any of that.”

Winsor also noted that the harms the plaintiffs’ claim were caused by the statute were reportedly “before it went into effect,” and thus “the harms predating [the] statute’s enforcement were not caused” by the statute. 

Winsor wrote: “Plaintiffs’ complaint is replete with allegations showing their asserted injuries flowed from something other than the law’s enforcement. Indeed, they allege that the law’s ‘harmful effects’ were ‘already manifest’ even before the law became effective — before, that is, it even could be enforced.” 

The ruling added: “It should be obvious that harms predating a statute’s enforcement were not caused by the statute’s enforcement. And it should be equally obvious that an injunction precluding a statute’s enforcement would not stop harms the statute’s enforcement never caused in the first place.”

The dismissed suit alleged the Florida statute, sometimes referred to by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, violated the First Amendment, due process rights and Title IX. Tuesday’s ruling found those charges to be unfounded.

DeSantis’ Rapid Response Director Christina Pushaw tweeted in August:

“I mean, obviously. This law is common sense. That’s why democrats and media activists (but I repeat myself) had to lie about it and push straight up propaganda like ‘Don’t Say Gay’ to create the illusion of controversy.” 

DeSantis signed HB 1557 into law on March 28, tweeting, 

“Today, I signed HB 1557, the Parental Rights in Education Act, into law. It ensures parents can send their kids to kindergarten without gender ideology being injected into instruction and they will be notified and have the right to decline healthcare services offered at schools.”