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The Business Response to Florida's “Stop WOKE Act"

Discussion on Florida's Stop WOKE Act and its impact on business free speech and democracy by Business for America.

Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.

Generated from the transcript and can be wrong — check the timestamp.

Key Takeaways

  • The Stop WOKE Act threatens corporate free speech and workplace diversity initiatives.
  • Business for America sees protecting democratic institutions as essential for economic health.
  • Legal challenges are underway to block the Act’s employer provisions.
  • The Act could set a precedent for similar laws in other states, increasing political interference in business speech.
  • Businesses are urged to actively oppose the Act to maintain a healthy democratic and business environment.

What the video covers

  • Business for America hosts a discussion on the implications of Florida's Stop WOKE Act for businesses, focusing on workplace speech and democratic norms.
  • The Stop WOKE Act, officially the Individual Freedom Act, was signed into law by Governor DeSantis and is currently challenged in court.
  • The legislation targets diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training and corporate speech, raising concerns about free speech and potential lawsuits.
  • Business for America emphasizes the economic interest businesses have in protecting democratic institutions and the risks of political overreach.
  • The discussion includes insights from Shalini Eggerwall, lead attorney on the lawsuit challenging the Act, and highlights legal and business community responses.
  • The Act is viewed as part of a broader trend threatening free speech and corporate autonomy, with potential negative impacts on workplace culture.
  • Business for America encourages participation and action from businesses to oppose the Act and protect democratic values.
  • The video covers the history of related executive orders and federal legislation efforts on election security and civics education.
  • Concerns are raised about the Act's potential to stifle corporate speech and impose restrictive speech codes that could backfire politically.
  • The discussion also touches on the broader political environment and the importance of businesses using their platforms to defend democracy.

Chapters

  1. 00:00Introduction and Context of the Stop WOKE Act
  2. 03:56Topics and Audience Participation
  3. 07:08Business for America Membership and Mission
  4. 10:43Impact of the Act on Workplace Speech and DEI
  5. 14:30Legal Challenges and Role of Protect Democracy
  6. 21:17Historical Background and Related Executive Orders
  7. 24:37Call to Action and Business Community Response
  8. 27:46Broader Political Implications and Closing Remarks

Answers

Questions about this video

What is the Stop WOKE Act and why is it significant for businesses?

The Stop WOKE Act, officially called the Individual Freedom Act, restricts workplace speech around diversity, equity, and inclusion. It is significant because it limits corporate free speech and could lead to lawsuits, impacting how businesses manage workplace culture.

Who is challenging the Stop WOKE Act and what is the current legal status?

Protect Democracy is challenging the Act, having secured a preliminary injunction against its employer provisions. The state is appealing, and a decision is expected from the 11th Circuit Court in Florida early next year.

How does Business for America view the role of businesses in protecting democracy?

Business for America believes businesses have a bottom-line economic interest in protecting democratic institutions and must take meaningful action to preserve democratic norms and resist political overreach that threatens free speech.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:01
Speaker A
We really appreciate your participation in this important discussion about the Stop Woke Act. Business for America wanted to organize this conversation today to look at the business implications of the action by the Florida State Legislature and Governor DeSantis in enacting the Stop Woke Act.
00:19
Speaker A
DeSantis in enacting uh the stop woke act and just a quick history on that piece of legislation uh woke by the way stands for wrongs to our kids and employers act the legislation is technically known as the individual Freedom Act and was
00:37
Speaker A
Just a quick history on that piece of legislation: WOKE, by the way, stands for Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees Act. The legislation is technically known as the Individual Freedom Act and was passed late last year, signed into law by Governor DeSantis.
01:00
Speaker A
appealing that injunction and a decision will likely be made in the 11th Circuit Court in Florida uh sometime early next year but the reason that business for America is interested in this topic um really relates to our broader work on
01:19
Speaker A
Then, as we're going to learn, it was challenged in court by Protect Democracy, who succeeded in securing a preliminary injunction against the employer provisions of the legislation. The state is now challenging that, is appealing that injunction, and a decision will likely be made in the 11th Circuit Court in Florida sometime early next year.
01:39
Speaker A
Target in what we are concerned about is an erosion of our norms and uh historic standards about what constitutes a healthy democracy so we're concerned about that Trend in Florida and elsewhere in the political environment and then we're also concerned basically
01:58
Speaker A
But the reason that Business for America is interested in this topic really relates to our broader work on the health of democracy. As we see over the past several years, as the legitimacy of our institutions is challenged, we also find that business has become a target. The instance here in Florida very much makes the business community a target.
02:23
Speaker A
topics we're going to focus on here during the conversation we very much want your participation if you have questions please pose them in the Q a function at the bottom of the screen and we'll make sure to try to get to all of
02:42
Speaker A
What we are concerned about is an erosion of our norms and historic standards about what constitutes a healthy democracy. So, we're concerned about that trend in Florida and elsewhere in the political environment.
03:03
Speaker A
um Shalini is going to describe to us in a little bit more detail okay so that hopefully gives you the context of why we're having the conversation and um the consequences of this piece of legislation to the business Community
03:21
Speaker A
Then, we're also concerned basically about corporate free speech and speech codes, and how the code in Florida could act to stifle free speech within the corporate community, imposing the possibility of lawsuits by employees and impairing a business's ability to operate productively.
03:37
Speaker A
right well thank you so much um really appreciate that Richard thank you to everyone for joining us today so as Richard alluded to business for America is a business membership organization National nonpartisan non-profit and we're focused exclusively on how companies can help Foster a
03:56
Speaker A
So, those are all topics we're going to focus on here during the conversation. We very much want your participation. If you have questions, please pose them in the Q&A function at the bottom of the screen, and we'll make sure to try to get to all of those as we can.
04:12
Speaker A
business Community has a bottom line economic interest in protecting our Democratic institutions we believe that talking about the problem is not enough it's time for businesses to take meaningful action toward the preservation of our Democratic Republic and since our founding we have had a
04:30
Speaker A
Then also, I want to just make sure people know that there is a business sign-on letter that Protect Democracy has produced. We will make sure you have access to that, and there is also an amicus brief that Shalini is going to describe to us in a little bit more detail.
04:49
Speaker A
the Electoral count act to ensure the process for counting Electoral College votes is Crystal Clear in every presidential election but uh as we've done all this work so far we haven't worked directly on the issue of free speech and I hope that
05:05
Speaker A
Okay, so that hopefully gives you the context of why we're having the conversation and the consequences of this piece of legislation to the business community broadly speaking.
05:19
Speaker A
diversity equity and inclusion and it's important to note that the question here is not whether Dei training is useful or effective it might be terrific but it might be ineffective or even counterproductive that's not the issue the relevant policy question here is who
05:37
Speaker A
So, let me first turn it over to my colleague Sarah Bank to give a little bit of detail on why Business for America is interested in this topic and the type of work that BFA engages in.
05:53
Speaker A
business should have the freedom to foster a workplace culture of your own choosing we think your business should have the freedom to experiment with that and the freedom to fail it's not the government's job to decide that when we
06:08
Speaker A
All right, well, thank you so much. Really appreciate that, Richard. Thank you to everyone for joining us today.
06:22
Speaker A
but it's essential to remember that these rules can be turned around and used against speech that you do support it's not that difficult to imagine lawmakers in a blue State passing a lot to limit companies from espousing certain values in the workplace like
06:36
Speaker A
So, as Richard alluded to, Business for America is a business membership organization, national, nonpartisan, nonprofit, and we're focused exclusively on how companies can help foster a healthy representative democracy and more effective government.
06:53
Speaker A
free speech of ideas is a bigger threat to our Liberty and to American values and to our representative democracy then wokeness could ever be so with that I'll hand it back to you Richard great good thank you so let's learn a little bit more about
07:08
Speaker A
Our companies come from across the country and all different sectors and sizes. Our members are Fortune 500s and all the way down to small startups.
07:28
Speaker A
over the past year and a half and really happy to um have Shalini with us this morning to describe the history of a lawsuit and uh what companies can do about it so I'll turn it over to you thanks for
07:44
Speaker A
At the core of our mission is the understanding that the business community has a bottom-line economic interest in protecting our democratic institutions.
08:09
Speaker A
means they are basically suspended because of the lawsuit and we are looking for your help to make sure that it stays that way so more details on on how to do that to come how we got here so the story we have we
08:22
Speaker A
We believe that talking about the problem is not enough. It's time for businesses to take meaningful action toward the preservation of our democratic republic.
08:37
Speaker A
executive order um so in 2020 then president Trump enacted an executive order at the urging of Chris Ruffo um who many of you may have heard of or seen on Fox News um that was aimed at combating what they called the
08:56
Speaker A
Since our founding, we have had a variety of business initiatives. We coordinated donations of PPE to election officials in 2020. We advocated for election cybersecurity policy as well as voting rights and accessibility in 2021.
09:13
Speaker A
structure of that executive order and a federal court soon thereafter and joined that executive order as a clear First Amendment violation Viewpoint discrimination uh you know unconstitutional that President Biden took office and when he did so he rescinded that executive order but then
09:33
Speaker A
Right now, we're supporting bipartisan federal legislation for civics education as well as reforming the Electoral Count Act to ensure the process for counting Electoral College votes is crystal clear in every presidential election.
09:51
Speaker A
any of these these same Concepts um so to date at least 17 States largely in the Southeast uh have enacted not just in the Southeast but that's I think the highest concentration is here other states as well have enacted these types
10:06
Speaker A
But as we've done all this work so far, we haven't worked directly on the issue of free speech. I hope that everyone joining this webinar would agree that free speech is protected by the U.S. Constitution and is an essential part of our democratic institutions.
10:24
Speaker A
Governor DeSantis unveiled the stop woke act and during the announcement he talked about this bill as a tool to what he called take on corporate wokeness and he characterized Dei trainings as basically corporate sanctioned racism and he was going to put a stop to it
10:43
Speaker A
As Richard noted, today we'll be talking about the Stop Woke Act and how it targets business workplace speech around diversity, equity, and inclusion.
11:00
Speaker A
private employer workplaces and and regulate the speech of those private employers um and it censors basically the speech of private employers who want to conduct mandatory diversity equity and inclusion training for their employees um and you know as many of you who have
11:20
Speaker A
It's important to note that the question here is not whether DEI training is useful or effective. It might be terrific, but it might be ineffective or even counterproductive. That's not the issue.
11:35
Speaker A
that with the targeting of Disney um which you know uh came out against the domesday gay bill um you've seen that with um the line item veto of the Tampa Bay Rays State uh training facility after the Tampa Bay Rays uh did some tweeting
11:55
Speaker A
The relevant policy question here is who gets to decide what goes on in your workplace, who gets to decide what kind of speech your company supports and engages in.
12:11
Speaker A
sure that you're able to exercise it um so uh protect democracy typically has not been involved in issues like this we largely focused on voting uh and regularity of you know um electoral counts um vote focusing on protecting institutions of democracy but
12:35
Speaker A
What we're talking about here is a state government regulating the free exchange of ideas. At BFA, we think your business should have the freedom to foster a workplace culture of your own choosing.
12:54
Speaker A
makes this really like an authoritarian law um one that it seeks to censor ideas that challenge government officials preferred narrative to it muzzles independent institutions in this case businesses who have an important voice to contribute to our democracy
13:13
Speaker A
We think your business should have the freedom to experiment with that and the freedom to fail. It's not the government's job to decide that.
13:34
Speaker A
so let's talk about what the the concepts are what are these prohibited Concepts that the law um forbids employers from conducting mandatory training about um one is implicit bias uh and I should say that the way that the law is
13:50
Speaker A
When we consider new laws or regulations, it's essential to look at the underlying principles. One of BFA's principles is that we need rules that make sense no matter who is in charge.
14:09
Speaker A
line is um so for the implicit bias you know they they voiced that as that an individual by virtue of race color sex or national origin is inherently racist or sexist or oppressive whether consciously or unconsciousness or getting at the idea of of implicit bias
14:30
Speaker A
You might like a particular restriction on speech, but it's essential to remember that these rules can be turned around and used against speech that you do support.
14:50
Speaker A
the employers commonly of course seek to discourage employees from engaging in certain behaviors that negatively affect others based on their sex and that might run the foul of the trainings because you were focusing on um treating the sex of the recipient of
15:07
Speaker A
It's not that difficult to imagine lawmakers in a blue state passing a law to limit companies from espousing certain values in the workplace, like, let's say, Hobby Lobby's Christian values or Black Rifle Coffee Company's pro-military and pro-Second Amendment views.
15:24
Speaker A
um a certain conduct and so that focus on the particulars of the individual would be prohibited by this by this law um similarly uh discussions of reparations or restorative justice um that it would the the language of the the law is that
15:44
Speaker A
So, we think that's not giving politicians the ability to define and restrict what constitutes acceptable discourse in the workplace.
16:01
Speaker A
targeted at women in business in order to provide support in corporate environments that are traditionally dominated by men um those would also be suspect under this law and so the way the law functions is that it it makes advancing any of those Concepts
16:22
Speaker A
Chilling the free speech of ideas is a bigger threat to our liberty and to American values and to our representative democracy than wokeness could ever be.
16:37
Speaker A
okay employers you cannot Advance any of these prohibited Concepts there's a deliberate vagueness added into the law with this catch-all phrase that says okay well while you cannot Advance any of the concepts you can discuss them without endorsement so long as you don't
16:54
Speaker A
So, with that, I'll hand it back to you, Richard.
17:14
Speaker A
found this in our case in honeyfund Beat the scientist the judge found that the net effect is that employers are all going to steer far clearer of um talking about any of these Concepts that are you know remotely related to
17:26
Speaker A
Great, good, thank you. So, let's learn a little bit more about the legislation and the history of this act.
17:42
Speaker A
of this year um and just to clarify because there's been a lot of there's been a lot of litigation related to the style folk act um so uh you might have heard about other other lawsuits that were filed one was
17:56
Speaker A
Shalini Eggerwall is the lead attorney on this lawsuit and is counsel at Protect Democracy. We've had the real honor of working with Protect Democracy on a number of initiatives over the past year and a half and are really happy to have Shalini with us this morning to describe the history of the lawsuit and what companies can do about it.
18:12
Speaker A
getting an injunction and is largely on hold or tried to amend the complaint and sort of figured out I think they filed that lawsuit um I'd say fairly quickly uh and uh had some standing issues with some of their playing tips
18:26
Speaker A
So, I'll turn it over to you. Thanks for joining us.
18:40
Speaker A
foundation for individual rights and expression um and so we're waiting to see the outcome of those cases and So currently there is no separate challenge that's just to the K-12 provision so stepping back then our lawsuit focuses on the employer provisions of the law I
19:00
Speaker A
Thank you. At the urging of our governor, Florida enacted the Stop Woke Act to crack down on what he's calling woke corporations, to restrict speech about DEI in the workplace.
19:16
Speaker A
that that speech as critical for their businesses the first is honey fund which is a honeymoon technology registry company for folks to read they were featured on Shark Tank a few years ago and they um enable couples to like register for
19:34
Speaker A
The employer provisions of the law are currently enjoined, which means they are basically suspended because of the lawsuit, and we are looking for your help to make sure that it stays that way.
19:54
Speaker A
business or are they trying to um demonized business uh and asking Florida to please pick a side so they could determine how they should operate accordingly um we're also so thankful to Primo Tampa which is the largest Ben and Jerry's
20:11
Speaker A
So, more details on how to do that to come. How we got here: the story we have is an example of how authoritarian ideas can take root and gain traction in a different context.
20:31
Speaker A
call Ice Cream the product but social justice is right I'm sorry ice cream the medium but social justice the product like that's the mission so that they view diversity Equity inclusion as really critical to all of their work and all of their um
20:47
Speaker A
The idea for the Stop Woke Act and other sort of copycat bills all originate back to late 2020 with a Trump executive order.
21:01
Speaker A
businesses about their role in you know their industry's role in past Injustice and like recompense that they might be interested in making so she's worked with a lot of banks for example on you know okay if you have uh maybe not made
21:17
Speaker A
In 2020, then-President Trump enacted an executive order at the urging of Chris Rufo, who many of you may have heard of or seen on Fox News.
21:34
Speaker A
preliminary injunction and the court issued a preliminary injunction on August 19th So currently in Florida the law is suspended in terms of State officials uh enforcing it um because the court said it's likely unconstitutional what the court said was
21:52
Speaker A
That was aimed at combating what they called the toxic propaganda like critical race theory and the 1619 Project.
22:09
Speaker A
society then let it make its case but it cannot win the argument by muzzling its opponents the judge also took some time to distinguish the conduct prohibited by the staff woke act from Title VII claims uh because I think the state argued that
22:24
Speaker A
This executive order prohibited federal contractors from advancing certain race-related concepts. So, if they advanced racially related concepts, they could not be a federal contractor. That was the structure of that executive order.
22:44
Speaker A
incidentally burden speech whereas this is purely you're targeting like a particular it's called the stop woke after a particularly targeting the act of speaking on expressing a certain Viewpoint and that is you know constitutionally problematic um he also noted that for Title VII
23:04
Speaker A
A federal court soon thereafter enjoined that executive order as a clear First Amendment violation, viewpoint discrimination, unconstitutional.
23:23
Speaker A
and I I think that like one of the other kind of core insights that our plaintiffs have have brought to the fore for us is that if these provisions of the stopwoke ACT were enforced then private businesses would find themselves
23:37
Speaker A
President Biden took office, and when he did so, he rescinded that executive order.
23:50
Speaker A
provides a safe harbor so that if later your business is sued for racial discrimination like you could say well look we did this training we have these policies in place so on the one hand we're trying to ensure that there is a racially and uh
24:06
Speaker A
But then, lo and behold, a couple of years later, those concepts...
24:22
Speaker A
circuit we're expecting the state's brief to come in on November the 14th and we expect to file a response sometime in December a schedule is still being worked out um but I just wanted to talk a little bit about what it is that that you can
24:37
Speaker A
do how you can help um so we would like to show the governor and all Floridians that businesses reject this kind of overreach and censorship and that it makes these kinds of speech codes make Florida a hostile place for business and
24:53
Speaker A
so there's two concrete actions that we think that you can take the first is that there is a sign on letter and maybe we can share in the chat the link to that sign-on letter it's just a statement saying you know this is
25:05
Speaker A
stopwatch government censorship and uh we think it makes it the Hostile place for Florida for for businesses to operate in Florida um so we'd encourage you to please take a look at that and if it's something that your business uh can sign on to to
25:21
Speaker A
please do go ahead and sign on to it we're looking for signatures on that letter by like November the 10th um and we're seeking to do some publicity around that uh statement and the number of signatories so far we've got about
25:38
Speaker A
we've got about I think 19 signatories so far so hopefully there will be others um and that's the first thing the second action that you could take is that we are helping to organize an amicus brief um by businesses in support of our
25:57
Speaker A
plaintiffs in sport of our position opposing the stopwoke ACT we have a law firm lined up to do that mugger told an Olsen and we're also looking at a deadline of around November the 10th although I think there may be a little
26:12
Speaker A
bit more lead time because the state has taken longer than we expected to file their brief so we might have a couple more weeks but if you're interested in in doing that I'd love to hear from you and follow up with me and we're planning
26:25
Speaker A
to reach out to everyone who slides on to the sign on letter to see if they would be interested in in participating in the Amigas and I think that the arguments of the Amigas sorry just one quick thing the argumentative
26:36
Speaker A
in because I met I believe are largely one that um that the stopwatch censors business speech and that's a basic First Amendment violation um and then I think it depends on the interest of the businesses that sign on
26:57
Speaker A
but it could also be a further argument that diversity equity and inclusion speech is helpful for business and you know there's a kind of commitment to to engaging in that speech although that'll depend on um what the group of of amiki want to
27:13
Speaker A
talk about great Shalini thank you so much that's most helpful let me ask um a question that someone has posed here would a successful lawsuit um in Florida possibly affect other states like Texas where the 1619 project is explicitly banned by name what impact
27:33
Speaker A
do you hope that um you know quelching this act might have in other states well uh we're hopeful that if we are successful on Appeal on the injunction is upheld that other states will not adopt these this kind of like I
27:51
Speaker A
mentioned Florida's is the most extreme and we have thus far not seen other states enact um Provisions that restrict employer speech so if that if that you know we're hoping to guard against that in terms of the education Provisions that's like
28:05
Speaker A
separate lawsuits so right right could have a similar deterrent effect but uh that's not our case okay good good thanks so we'll we'll come back to this some of those points but I just wanted to you know remind everyone that in the
28:19
Speaker A
past year a number of elected officials have made comments about what's appropriate for the business Community to do or not do you know there have been statements and um and then uh consequential uh retribution retaliation against companies you know not only in
28:37
Speaker A
Florida for their involvement in Dei training and Free Speech but also around voting rights um Marjorie Taylor green the other day mentioned that there would be you know possibly investigations of companies who had stopped giving to um elected members of Congress who had
28:59
Speaker A
not certified the Electoral College so you know there's a trend here developing I think that we need to be mindful of um let me turn now to Chris Miller and Chris is the head of global activism strategy of Ben and Jerry's and I know
29:19
Speaker A
Chris has been following this issue closely because one of its franchisees is intimately involved in this case so Chris when you have been thinking about this from you know and from a national perspective what are the economic implications
29:39
Speaker A
of what's happening in Florida and why is this of concern to Ben and Jerry's thanks Richard and it's it's great to be with you and and the others today let me start quickly just by thanking Shalini and protect democracy who are sort of
29:56
Speaker A
taking the lead on the legal Challenge on this somewhat ridiculous law um let me just also say how proud We Are that uh Antonio McBroom the CEO of Primo Partners who show any noted is an uh our largest franchisee in our franchise
30:15
Speaker A
system is a plaintiff on the case uh and so we're really pleased that he is representing our brand uh in challenging this law uh you know this is an important issue for us we have a commitment around issues of diversity equity and inclusion
30:35
Speaker A
in the way in which we run our business and we believe that that commitment and that strategy is an important part of continuing to build a successful and profitable Ben and Jerry's into the future you know stepping back for a second I think
30:54
Speaker A
collectively as a corporate community we should all be concerned about political leaders who are sort of using legislation and sort of instruments of the state to punish corporations who use whose views they disagree with as shown you know this is what authoritarian
31:12
Speaker A
leaders do it's not the way a democracy should be run and you know what is clear is that it really is looking to stifle speech on one side of the political Spectrum it is a certain kind of speech about uh uh issues around uh
31:33
Speaker A
gender sexual orientation and race uh and it's it's troubling um it really does represent a sort of unprecedented reach into into companies uh and is challenging the way in which you know we train and develop our employees an essential part of our
31:53
Speaker A
diversity equity and inclusion commitment internally our aesthetic goals we have around our employee base our franchise Network our suppliers vendors and agencies and inherent in achieving those goals is ensuring that our people understand the concepts uh that that uh undergird the system that
32:15
Speaker A
has kept uh black brown people of color from thriving in our business and and so um you know the stop woke act that would preclude us from engaging our employees in Florida our franchise base in Florida is a big problem we have a history of
32:36
Speaker A
doing these types of trainings in Florida our annual franchise meeting is often held in Florida and a part of those have been uh trainings around issues of uh the systemic nature of racism uh and so uh it's incredibly important
32:54
Speaker A
to not just the sort of values of Ben and Jerry's but but for the road map that we have uh to build a more diverse business which will drive our growth into the future so you know again it's an
33:12
Speaker A
important issue I would encourage all the companies on the phone um from Florida to to join the sign-on letter and consider being a part of the uh Amicus brief I think we all have an interest in ensuring that we have the
33:26
Speaker A
tools that we need to create the kind of companies and cultures uh uh that that make our businesses future fit so thanks again Richard great Chris let me ask you thanks and let me ask you a follow-up question so given that you have
33:43
Speaker A
franchisees across the country you know the fact that a law in Florida May stifle the competitive nature of business there may impact workplace productivity in one state so how does that affect what you do in Georgia or in
34:02
Speaker A
Nevada or you know how can you operate with a different set of rules depending you know on on the whim of the legislature and the governor sure yeah I mean it goes without saying it's not ideal the uh the idea that you
34:16
Speaker A
know you could conceivably have 50 different states you know micromanaging the the training and development opportunities that we have for our employees around the country is is absurd um and so I I think it it you know what
34:32
Speaker A
what we are seeing here I think is less about um you know wanting to ironically uh as its sort of positioned to somehow stop discrimination and racism but really is about looking to stifle a certain kind of speech
34:55
Speaker A
um on one end of the political spectrum and so you know again as Sarah rightly noted you know this is happening on one side of the political Spectrum not to say that it couldn't happen on the other side and so collectively as a
35:11
Speaker A
business Community I think we all have an interest in ensuring that you know this kind of sort of political retribution doesn't become a part of the way in which corporations are regulated right and I assume that you know people
35:25
Speaker A
who walk into a Ben and Jerry's uh in Tallahassee or in Phoenix or in Los Angeles may have a range of political views right so uh you don't have to be a progressive to eat Ben and Jerry's ice
35:38
Speaker A
cream um right and so you are looking to serve the cross-section of the United you know of America and not have a preference as to who your customers are right yeah that's right I mean we you know we
35:55
Speaker A
wanna we wanna We believe We Serve the best ice cream in the world and our scoop shops which are in States all around the country really are the sort of anchor of our brand in those communities and we want to you know it's
36:06
Speaker A
no secret that our company has a a strong set of kind of progressive values that guide the way in which we operate our business but at the end of the day you know our scoop shots are places where people from across the political
36:19
Speaker A
Spectrum you know the the diversity Spectrum come you know after a baseball game a day at the beach and have a have a you know have a great treat so I think um you know we we we want to be there
36:35
Speaker A
for everybody right yeah let me ask you one final question we get uh pose the question Often by companies about the potential for blowback you know so should they say something about Behavior they find objectionable or concerning um in this era where Democratic
36:57
Speaker A
traditions and Norms are being undermined um you know they're concerned that it will adversely impact their business that an elected official may take some retaliatory action against them that impacts the bottom line so what um what's your perspective on that and how
37:15
Speaker A
are you all accounting for that in Florida yeah I think you know not concerned about it one um two I think this is how authoritarianism takes root if if we're not willing to speak up and have a point of view on you know
37:37
Speaker A
we're we're not talking about here uh uh you know a a traditional debate around tax policy or the the role of government in regulating business we're we're talking about legislation that is literally kind of Retribution for a particular political point of view and
37:57
Speaker A
again I go back to we should all be deeply concerned by that so you know are we worried that Ron DeSantis is going to say something that hurts our business not really you know I mean you know Governor DeSantis picking a fight with
38:12
Speaker A
Disney you know in a narrow part of his political base that may resonate but you know if I'm if I'm a bet in person I'm going to kind of think Disney's gonna be all right on this um so I think you know this is how
38:25
Speaker A
Authority authoritarianism takes root and I and I would just say it may not always be easy but it's important to use our platforms right to say this isn't okay great thank you Chris good so let's move um to Jeffrey cabbage
38:43
Speaker A
service um who's with us from the niscannon center we've worked with the niscana center um on a number of projects including a series we did in 2021 it seems like so long ago on polarization and Jeffrey was one of the panelists in a number of
39:02
Speaker A
those sessions so Jeffrey I know that you know as a sender right organization an a scanning Center is thinking a lot about the trajectory of conservatism in the United States the health of our democracy free speech and sort of a
39:21
Speaker A
diminution of these Traditional Values we've held dear about that make our our Republic function so from your perspective what's at stake here in this lawsuit um you know both from a free speech perspective and maybe the health of our
39:41
Speaker A
democracy well thank you Richard um it's good to be with you and thanks to my fellow panelists as well it's been very interesting to hear your perspectives um and I'm sure we all send a get well wished to Walter Olson my friend
39:54
Speaker A
um who couldn't be here uh he would have given you a very in-depth look at employment law which he knows so well I'm going to try to elevate up to 30 000 feet and just give you my speculations
40:05
Speaker A
as someone who thinks about politics from a center-right perspective I should also add that I am a Floridian although people rarely identify me as such I did go to high school there my friends and family lived there and I actually have
40:18
Speaker A
had arguments with them about the stop woke act uh because you know generally speaking people don't like indoctrination and uh it's really a sort of question of spelling out what some of the implications of the stop woke act
40:32
Speaker A
are where you actually get into the problems of it um I should also add that I saw DeSantis speak at the conference of the national conservatism movement in Miami just about a month and a half ago and without
40:47
Speaker A
going too deeply into this particular political philosophy I think it actually is important to know where they're coming from uh because DeSantis is the American politician who best expresses their views uh even better than Donald Trump even though the movement is kind
41:01
Speaker A
of an attempt to retrofit some kind of intellectual justification around Trump's brand of right-wing populism but essentially the brief of the national uh conservatives is that conservatives have been systematically excluded from all of the commanding Heights of American society and culture
41:18
Speaker A
they have no presence or influence uh in the media in Academia in Hollywood in the largest corporations and even in the military and therefore what needs to happen from their perspective is that conservatives need to abandon their Ronald reagan-esque belief in the free
41:39
Speaker A
market and instead wailed the power of government as a club with which to smash their ideological opponents um and this is you know not the dominant view of the Republican party yet but I think it's coming to be that
41:53
Speaker A
um and if it does come to pass then we're going to see number one Republican party that is advancing National legislation to put the stopwoke ACT into effect across the country not just in Florida so I don't think we're talking
42:07
Speaker A
about just what's happening in one uh odd little gun-shaped uh Peninsula down south um we're talking about something that's coming to your state quite possibly and it's also uh really a sort of big alignment or realignment in our
42:21
Speaker A
politics because the Republican Party historically has been the party of business and I think most Business Leaders still reflexively identify the Republican party as their allies and think that the Democrats are trying to impose some kind of socialism and you
42:36
Speaker A
know again this is a long thread of our history Calvin Coolidge said the business of America is business um Lewis Powell in 1971 put out that famous memo where he's really calling on conservative organizations to smash anti-capitalist uh indoctrination in the
42:52
Speaker A
schools and workplaces um so you know what we have here essentially is a new paradigm and one I think that is very damaging um and I think it actually is really uh it's unclear yet as to whether business
43:06
Speaker A
and the Republican Party are going to go their separate ways uh we're sort of seeing how things play out in Florida and therefore that's again why I think it's important so look at this you know one of the things that's worth
43:18
Speaker A
considering from a perspective as a Floridian is the ways that Florida is actually a state that's actually quite hostile towards Big corporations generally uh it's a low-wage low-cost state that actually is turning into a low-wage high cost state but among
43:33
Speaker A
America's big States it actually has fewer Fortune 500 companies per capita than uh do a lot of other states and even some City these which have more Fortune 500 companies than Florida itself and there was actually a pretty
43:47
Speaker A
high profile case last year where Apple uh chose to relocate a one billion dollar investment with some 3 000 new employees in North Carolina rather than Florida and that's because essentially uh North Carolina although it's a higher tax
44:01
Speaker A
state provides what a lot of corporations are looking for nowadays it invests much more than Florida does in higher education uh in infrastructure uh in in medicine whereas Florida actually is investing a lot more money in its police forces let us say
44:17
Speaker A
um and so basically what we have here is a Republican party that's threatening to turn away from so much of what really uh it lived by from Ronald Reagan onwards which is a belief in the power of independent corporations to act as they
44:31
Speaker A
see their best interest without interference from the state um and again some of Ron desantis's own ideas are being undercut uh by the actions of this because one of the things that the stop woke act does is essentially remove academic freedom
44:48
Speaker A
protections from Florida's universities and we've already seen this in action with Florida attempting to prevent uh three professors of political science from testifying uh publicly on uh elections related matters that are within their areas of expertise um you're starting to see it in
45:04
Speaker A
Florida's desire to withdraw tenure protections from faculty as well as to change the certification arrangements for universities and many corporations are not going to want to go into a state where higher education is under threat in that way many corporations are not
45:19
Speaker A
going to want to go into a state where they will see their ability to draw upon the fullest extent of the workforce possible and then to try to get that Workforce to work harmoniously again in ways that they see as being in their own
45:32
Speaker A
best capitalistic interests so from a free market perspective there's a lot to worry about in the stopwoke act and a lot of reasons to look closely at it and oppose its further spread into other states or nationally as well as to try
45:45
Speaker A
to work against this kind of anti-capitalist perspective from taking over the Republican Party Jeff Jeffrey thanks that was very insightful I appreciate those those comments and when you think about the shift from Ronald Reagan and the advancement of the free market to what
46:04
Speaker A
you described as you know uh Focus now on political power what is the calculation do you think about you know establishing laws like this and uh but also needing to create economic prosperity so um you know if Ben and Jerry's chooses
46:24
Speaker A
to withdraw from uh Florida that's not in the state's interest it's not in its employees interest um so what's the emerging calculus you think within you know the DeSantis Camp around um these these types of efforts as far
46:42
Speaker A
as it impacts the economy so I think um on the one hand what we're seeing uh is an effect of the realignment of the two parties bases uh the Democratic party long having seen itself as the party of the working class
46:54
Speaker A
now increasingly represents the college-educated professional classes whereas the Republicans are making ever greater inroads into the non-college educated voter base um and this to some extent affects their allegiances uh the non-college educated voters for the most part do not look
47:10
Speaker A
favorably on big corporations um and you know at the other hand I think you know what we are seeing in desantis's political approach uh has real parallels with that of Victor Orban in Hungary let us say um and in fact at that National
47:28
Speaker A
conservatism conference one of orban's Chief spokespeople and theorists said what Ron DeSantis is doing is essentially warbonism in an American context and part of what Orban is trying to do is reorient the whole political equation where it is still technically a
47:45
Speaker A
democracy and yet the courts are silenced um universities are not free to teach what they want to teach and also business has to go along with the ideological wishes of the ruling party if they wish to carry on in
47:59
Speaker A
business right um so you ask about the economic implications you know to some extent what's baked into the orbanus model is that you determine the economic outcomes that you want you see who prospers it who does not uh in in the
48:12
Speaker A
market um and I think in that sense you know sort of dollars and cents calculations are not what or uh someone like Ron DeSantis has foremost in his mind because at this point he thinks that corporations are basically immoral and
48:25
Speaker A
cowardly and their leadership will go along with what the party in power wants and it has yet to be determined whether he's right about that or not Chris do you want to Jeffrey thank you Chris you want to offer any thoughts
48:38
Speaker A
response to that I think it's quite astute I think it's right on but you know I think this is you know this is a threat in Florida I think because of the national profile that Ron DeSantis has and the likelihood
48:55
Speaker A
that he you know is looking to become the standard Bearer for the Republican party on the other hand to the degree that this does represent um you know a sort of shift it does become a threat nationally and I think
49:10
Speaker A
you know it's fascinating to watch the you know what has been the traditional alliance between the Republican party and the corporate Community watching the kind of uh chips realign themselves so I think I I appreciate very much Jeffrey's
49:25
Speaker A
perspective right right um Shawnee to go back to you know the broader National implications of of the legislation so is protect democracy anticipating um the adoption or the extension of you mentioned there were 17 States that had Provisions restricting what gets taught
49:50
Speaker A
at in educational context what are you anticipating you know whether this succeeds or not in Florida that other states in the 23 legislature will pick these ideas up I think it depends on how politically successful it is here frankly you know
50:09
Speaker A
if it if it is politically successful then there's a greater chance that that other states will adopt it and it also kind of depends on how quickly um Republicans and other states sort of you know adopt this anti-corporate
50:24
Speaker A
um stance uh so you know we saw it discussed in the Texas legislature last session I haven't seen it seriously discussed in other states yet so we'll we'll see what kind of see what happens do you want to answer a couple of
50:36
Speaker A
questions that are in the chat yeah yeah so the question about the response from the Florida you know from Florida employees or employee employers or employees do you have any data you can share with us about that I don't have data um I I can share with
50:55
Speaker A
you that we have not seen any complaints that have been filed under the stopwoke act by employees who you know are complaining about speech that their employers have hoisted upon them um I will say that the law was only in
51:06
Speaker A
effect for a couple of months before it got and joined so maybe the timing did not quite work out but uh we haven't seen that sort of um response and then in terms of the repercussions question I wanted to just address that pretty
51:18
Speaker A
quickly also um so uh the governor has not been shy about going after companies that oppose him right so that's that's been pretty clear we think that there is strength in numbers and we think it is helpful that
51:34
Speaker A
there is a lawsuit that is ongoing so there is a public scrutiny uh and anything that is retributive will be viewed as such and we have federal judges involved in our case so to the extent that any kind of action is taken
51:52
Speaker A
by you know the the State against any of the signatories to a letter or to a um Amicus brief I imagine we would raise really quickly um with the the judge overseeing the case to say you need to do something
52:07
Speaker A
about this because this is uh scaring off um parties that have an interest here um the other thing I wanted to mention also is in terms of who can sign on to the letter uh so the the law affects
52:20
Speaker A
businesses that operate in Florida but they don't have to be exclusively in Florida so National businesses that have some presence in Florida they are also impacted by the law so anyone who has 15 or more employees and some of them are
52:33
Speaker A
in Florida you are impacted by the law so we're looking for a broad list of signons both by companies that operate exclusively in Florida and then more broadly like National companies that also have that business here right and
52:48
Speaker A
just to clarify so my company has to have at least 15 employees uh but it doesn't need to have 15 employees in Florida is that correct that's correct in order to be impacted by the law I will also say that in order
53:01
Speaker A
to have an intro duces speech should not be um censored by the government you know you're you're not acting as a party in the case you're not a plaintiff uh so you don't actually need to be someone who you know if your business has 10
53:17
Speaker A
employees uh but you're concerned about this issue you could still sign on for the letter we're not representing that the signatories of these are all folks who you know are directly um targets of the law if that makes
53:30
Speaker A
sense yes it does make sense okay so we will um those listening we'll make sure that you know you get um not only a copy of this recording but also a link to the sign-on letter that protect democracy has developed
53:47
Speaker A
and encourage you all to consider signing that um um we're almost at time so let me Jeff anything else you'd like to comment on um regarding just that uh ESG is also very much a target of movement now um
54:07
Speaker A
this again represents interference in how you can do your business um but Leonard Leo uh was the recipient recently of a 1.6 billion dollar uh inheritance from an Electronics entrepreneur he will be directing all of this at things like ESG and other things
54:24
Speaker A
that he perceives as wokeness in the economy um and as you said Richard at the outset Marjorie Taylor green is calling for inquiries into companies that uh right that opposed uh as the attempt of Republican legislators to overturn the
54:39
Speaker A
2020 election and this she now characterizes as corporate communism so this is a moving Target as well yes yep yep so as they say on television watch this space for a future webinar and ESG uh Jeffrey thank you for reminding us of
54:53
Speaker A
that and Chris any final thoughts no thanks Richard uh and Sarah for hosting and great to join you all good good and and uh thank the three of you and Shawnee really you know we appreciate the work you and protect
55:09
Speaker A
democracy are doing and the leadership uh on this issue so um thanks everyone have a great afternoon feel free to follow up with us with any questions you have and we'll get back to you good day everyone
Topics:Stop WOKE ActFlorida legislationBusiness free speechDiversity equity inclusionCorporate speech codesDemocracy protectionLegal challengesBusiness for AmericaGovernor DeSantisWorkplace culture

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