Florida Families Seek to Block 'Don't Say Gay' Law
The plaintiffs in a lawsuit challenging Florida’s “don’t say gay” law have requested a preliminary injunction blocking the law’s enforcement while their suit proceeds.They filed a motion to that effect Friday in the U.S.
District Court for the Middle District of Florida. It comes in the case of Cousins v. Orange County School Board, in which students, their families, and an association of LGBTQ+ community centers are represented by Lambda Legal, Southern Legal Counsel, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and private counsel Baker McKenzie.The law, which was signed by Gov.
Ron DeSantis in March and took effect in July, restricts classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. The plaintiffs in the suit, filed in July, say the law violates their free speech, due process, and equal protection rights under the U.S.
Constitution.House Bill 1557, titled Parental Rights in Education, “impermissibly chills the exercise of all Plaintiffs’ constitutionally protected speech and expression, based on content and viewpoint, and is overbroad, in violation of the First Amendment,” the motion reads.It goes on to say the law “is unconstitutionally vague, as it infringes upon Plaintiffs’ constitutionally protected right to free speech and provides inadequate notice of the conduct it purports to prohibit, in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” and that it “discriminates against Plaintiff students and parents on the basis of sex in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”Without the preliminary injunction, “Plaintiffs and other similarly situated students and parents will be subjected to further loss of their constitutional rights,” the filing says.
