TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A federal judge this week refused to toss out a lawsuit challenging a controversial Florida law requiring teachers to use pronouns that align with their sex assigned at birth, saying plaintiffs “plausibly” alleged the law violates protections against workplace discrimination.
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Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker’s ruling Wednesday pointed, in part, to a friend-of-the-court brief filed by the Biden administration in the lawsuit brought by Katie Wood, a transgender Hillsborough County teacher, and AV Schwandes, a nonbinary teacher fired last year by Florida Virtual School.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s brief focused on allegations that the 2023 law violates what is known as Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it discriminates based on sex.
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To determine whether the allegations in the lawsuit should be allowed to advance, the judge “need only decide whether plaintiffs have sufficiently pled that the title/pronoun policies discriminate ‘with respect to’ plaintiffs’ ‘terms, conditions, or privileges of employment,’” the Justice Department lawyers wrote, citing part of the federal law.
The “mandatory nature” of the state restrictions and the “consequences for non-compliance make clear” that the policies are a term or condition of employment, the Biden administration brief said, pointing to Schwandes’ firing.
Walker in April issued a preliminary injunction that blocked enforcement of the law against Wood, but the injunction did not apply statewide. Also, he denied a preliminary injunction sought by Schwandes.
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