Private Companies Seek Court Order to Block Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Stop WOKE Act

Today, Protect Democracy along with co-counsel Ropes & Gray LLP filed a Motion for a Preliminary Injunction on behalf of our clients, asking the court to block Florida’s HB 7, the so-called “Stop WOKE Act,” before it takes effect and to declare it unconstitutional.

We also filed an amended complaint, adding another small business whose constitutional right to freedom of speech would be violated by the law: Primo Tampa, LLC, a Black-owned Ben & Jerry’s franchisee in Florida and a subsidiary of the largest Ben & Jerry’s franchisee in the country. Primo joins Honeyfund, Inc., a Clearwater honeymoon registry technology company, and workplace diversity consultancy Collective Concepts and its co-founder Chevara Orrin as plaintiffs in this suit.

“We train our team members to serve as community leaders and offer true hospitality to our guests. Educating staff about systemic racism, implicit bias, and privilege is a means to that end,” said Antonio McBroom, CEO and franchise developer of Ben & Jerry’s scoop shops in the Tampa Bay Area. Primo Tampa is 100% Black-owned; its shops are the first Black-owned Ben & Jerry’s franchises in Florida. “We are a social justice organization, and ice cream is the platform to achieve it. We exist to grow the collective opportunity for marginalized communities through mentoring, coaching, and leadership development. This law will force us to dramatically alter our business model, sacrifice our values, and turn away from what has made us successful. It’ll threaten our very purpose for doing what we do.”

For more on the case, see our prior update from when we filed the case on June 24, 2022.