A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled against a transgender female teacher who challenged a Florida law that bars K-12 education employees from using their chosen personal titles or pronouns if they do not correspond to their sex assigned at birth.
A 2-1 panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, said the teacher’s First Amendment rights were not violated by the 2023 law because it imposes a restriction on her in-class speech as a government employee, rather than her speech rights as an individual.
“When a public school teacher addresses her students within the four walls of a classroom—whether orally or in writing—she is unquestionably acting ‘pursuant to her official duties,’” the majority said, quoting from a U.S. Supreme Court decision from 2006, Garcetti v. Ceballos, which makes up part of the key test for analyzing public-employee speech under the First Amendment and held that most job-related speech by such employees is not protected.
