CopyPublished | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
...4:23-cv-00526-MW-MAF
____________________
Before JORDAN, NEWSOM, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges.
NEWSOM, Circuit Judge:
Katie Wood is a transgender woman who teaches at a public
high school in Florida. Two years ago, the state enacted Fla. Stat.
§ 1000.071(3), which, as applied to Wood, prohibits her from using
the honorific “Ms.” and the gendered pronouns “she,” “her,” and
“hers” in exchanges with students during class time. Wood sued to
enjoin the enforcement of § 1000.071(3) against her....
... USCA11 Case: 24-11239 Document: 61-1 Date Filed: 07/02/2025 Page: 3 of 38
24-11239 Opinion of the Court 3
We disagree. Because we hold that Wood hasn’t shown a
substantial likelihood that § 1000.071(3) infringes her free-speech
rights, we vacate the preliminary injunction and remand the case
to the district court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
I
Katie Wood teaches algebra at a public high school in Flor-
ida....
...Wood” and
“she/her” on her classroom whiteboard and syllabi, she identified
herself as “Ms. Wood” in her communications with students, and
she wore a pin that said “she/her.” Then, in 2023, Florida enacted
Fla. Stat. § 1000.071, which states, in pertinent part, that “[a]n em-
ployee or contractor of a public K-12 educational institution may
not provide to a student his or her preferred personal title or pro-
nouns if such preferred personal title or pronouns do not corre-
spond to his or her sex.” Fla. Stat. § 1000.071(3).
Wood sued, challenging § 1000.071(3)’s constitutionality....
...Wood’s challenge is
limited in two important respects. First, the statute at issue prohib-
its Wood only from “provid[ing] to a student” her preferred title
and pronouns while she is “acting within the scope of [her] em-
ployment duties.” Fla. Stat. § 1000.071(3), (6)....
...See Johnson & Johnson,
299 F.3d at 1247.
IV
For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the district court
misapplied the law, and thus abused its discretion, in preliminarily
enjoining Fla. Stat. §
1000.071(3)’s enforcement against Wood....
...2 JORDAN, J., Dissenting 24-11239
In July of 2023, Florida enacted a statute declaring that it is
“false to associate to a person a pronoun that does not correspond
to such person’s sex.” Fla. Stat. § 1000.071(1)....
...ic
school teachers, employees, and contractors from providing to a
student “his or her preferred personal title or pronouns if such pre-
ferred personal title or pronouns do not correspond to that person’s
sex.” § 1000.071(3)....
...Code § 6A-10.081(2)
& 2(a)(14).
In my view, the district court did not abuse its discretion in
concluding that Katie Wood, a high school math teacher, has
shown a substantial likelihood of success on her claim that
§ 1000.071(3) violates her First Amendment rights by prohibiting
her from using her preferred personal title and pronouns in the
classroom....
...The initial question is whether the speech in question “owes
its existence to [Ms. Wood’s] professional responsibilities.” Garcetti,
547 U.S. at 421. For a number of reasons, it does not.
1. The statute at issue here, §
1000.071(3), does not target
titles conferred by a school or pronouns bestowed by the govern-
ment....
...s government
speech by simply affixing a government seal of approval, [the] gov-
ernment could silence or muffle the expression of disfavored par-
ticipants.” Id. 3
That danger exists here in spades. Through § 1000.071(3),
Florida has used “speech acts to instate a sexual binary that privi-
leges the expressive rights of its adherents over those whose iden-
tity calls that binary into question.” Susan Etta Keller, Doing Thing...
...Workers Ordered to Remove Gender Identity from Email Signatures, N.Y.
Times (Jan. 31, 2025), https://perma.cc/7WU8-3QP9. Second, if
Florida did not think this debate was a significant public matter it
would not have enacted § 1000.071(3)....
...Remarkable.”).
USCA11 Case: 24-11239 Document: 61-1 Date Filed: 07/02/2025 Page: 36 of 38
22 JORDAN, J., Dissenting 24-11239
The statute at issue here, § 1000.071(3), has nothing to do
with curriculum and everything to do with Florida attempting to
silence those with whom it disagrees on the matter of transgender
identity and status....
...is allowed to discriminate on the basis of viewpoint. By mistakenly
characterizing a teacher’s use of her preferred title and pronouns in
the classroom as government speech, the majority has foreclosed
any meaningful First Amendment review of § 1000.071(3)....
