A federal appeals court has blocked a provision of a new Florida law barring employers from holding mandatory workplace training sessions that embrace race, sex and equity concepts the state deemed offensive. 

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals handed down the preliminary injunction on March 4, concluding that the employer provision of the state’s “Stop WOKE Act” flies in the face of the First Amendment.

The provision states employers can’t require any person, as a condition of employment, to attend training sessions that promote certain beliefs dealing with race, color, sex or national origin. The law specifically bans the discussion of arguments supporting any kind of discrimination against an individual to achieve diversity, equity or inclusion goals or suggesting that an individual should feel guilt because of actions by ancestors of the same race in the past.