Courts

Florida Celebrates Black History Month By Gunning For Woke CLE Credits

From Black History Month-themed cop cars to no longer making Black history a requirement in school curricula, it has already been a hell of a February. In honor of the struggles African Americans have faced in the past, Florida’s Supreme Court has decided to make it harder for judges to satisfy continuing legal education requirements by enrolling in courses that would contribute to some cultural competency when interacting with people who do not look like extras in a Beach Boys music video. From ABA Journal:

Florida judges can no longer take “fairness and diversity” courses to satisfy continuing education requirements, unless the classes relate to judicial professionalism, ethics opinions or the judicial conduct code, the Florida Supreme Court has decided.

The Florida Supreme Court made the change on its motion, according to the Feb. 2 decision. The state supreme court said the old rule “was overbroad, because course content about ‘fairness and diversity’ might or might not pertain to judicial ethics.”

I’d say that the court’s legal reasoning is a joke, but there is already a market for humor-based CLE and I would hate to step on a working man’s toes:

Thankfully, at least one of of Florida’s justices had the foresight to see the slippery slope for what it is:

Justice Jorge Labarga, dissented. He said the purpose of fairness-and-diversity course credit was to complement judicial canons and educate the judiciary on strategies to recognize and combat discrimination.

“This unilateral action potentially eliminates vital educational content from our state courts’ judicial education curriculum and does so in a manner inconsistent with this court’s yearslong commitment to fairness-and-diversity education,” Labarga wrote. “Moreover, it paves the way for a complete dismantling of all fairness-and-diversity initiatives in the state courts system.”

No shit. What’s on the agenda for February 2024? Just straight up outlawing “fairness and diversity”? I joke, but let’s not forget that Florida is the home of the cartoonishly Onion-esque Stop W.O.K.E. Act. In the meantime, here is a quick bit of guidance to all six of the diversity- and fairness-minded judges left in Florida — try your best to not be the judge who imprisoned Black children over made-up crimes and I think you’ll be on the right track.

Florida Judges Can No Longer Get CLE Credit For General ‘Fairness And Diversity’ Courses, State Supreme Court Says [ABA Journal]

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.