Plaintiffs challenging a new Florida law that limits discussion of certain gender and race issues in higher education classes cannot subpoena state lawmakers to determine their motives in approving the measure, a federal appeals court decided. 

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Oct. 30 that the plaintiffs who oppose the Stop WOKE Act – seven professors and a student from several universities – cannot subpoena the state legislators because the elected officials have a legislative privilege, or immunity, from the discovery requests.

The plaintiffs, who are represented by the ACLU of Florida, had argued the state law, also called the Individual Freedom Act, violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, which was enacted during the later half of the 19th century but is still used widely to protect citizens from possible civil rights violations by local and state governments. They wanted to subpoena 14 lawmakers who are not party to the lawsuit for documents and records in order to determine whether their support for the law was racially motivated.