Флоридадағы академиялық бостандық туралы заң жобасы және даулар

Florida House Bill H 837, also known as HB 837 or The Academic Freedom Bill of Rights, was a proposed bill in 2005 that would have allowed students to establish lawsuits against their professors and university for perceived intolerance of the student's beliefs. The bill could have also required professors to teach concepts that may have contradicted established facts, if the concept was considered a "serious scholarly" theory (such as Holocaust denial). The bill was heavily criticized as an attack on free speech in academia, and raised concerns about potential abuse by those with fringe beliefs. It died on calendar in May 2005.

H 837 was one of many "academic freedom" bills proposed throughout the United States in the early 2000s. At the time, the ideological divide between Democrats and Republicans was widening, and many Democrats were highly critical of President George W. Bush and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Neoconservative activist David Horowitz, believing that the amount of liberal college professors was stifling discussion of conservative beliefs, decided to found Students for Academic Freedom (a subgroup of his Center for the Study of Popular Culture). Referencing a 1940 "academic freedom" document published by the American Association of University Professors, he drafted a "Student Bill of Rights" intending to protect students and faculty from discrimination or retaliation based on their political beliefs. Though the Academic Bill of Rights drew immediate backlash in academia, it spurred nationwide efforts to legislate "academic freedom" laws. Some interpreted the bill as mandating professors to teach both sides of a subject without any complaints from students, but Baxley maintained in interviews that this was not part of the bill. Horowitz's Academic Bill of Rights (and by extension, H 837) did not contain overtly politicized language. However, Democrats raised concerns about the partisan financial support, as well as the conservatism of the board of Students for Academic Freedom. The bill primarily gathered support from Republicans and conservative student groups, including Students for Academic Freedom, who denied a political motivation. In an interview with Democracy Now!, Weatherfield described H 837 as "a solution in search of a problem". Nationally, professors who were accused of anti conservative bias denied the allegations, asserting that details were left out or falsified; faculty members and student witnesses affirmed their statements. Weatherfield shared with Democracy Now! that students infrequently filed grievance reports, American Historical Association, and the National Coalition Against Censorship. Horowitz himself also received criticism for sharing unverified stories of ideological discrimination from professors; at least one claim was heavily fabricated, and he later admitted to lacking evidence of two others. Despite the failure of H 837, Florida continued pursuing academic freedom legislation. In April 2021, Baxley, now a member of the Florida Senate, voted in favor of HB 233, an "intellectual freedom" law that allowed students to film perceived bias from their professors, and barred university faculty from censoring "uncomfortable" or "offensive" speech on campus. The bill passed in the Florida Legislature.