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 force offending employees to modify their behavior or face discipline—up to and including termination. If a university “willfully and knowingly” violates section 1000.05(4)(a), Fla. Stat. (2022) (barring an employee from instruction that promotes any of the eight prohibited concepts), Regulation 10.005(4)(d) commands that “the university will be ineligible for performance funding” in the following fiscal year.

This performance funding is significant. For example, USF received $73,009,247 in performance-based funds in the 2021–2022 budget year, ECF No. 19-24, in Case No: 4:22cv324-MW/MAF, which makes up about a fifth of total state appropriations received by the University, see ECF No. 1 at 36, in Case No: 4:22cv324-MW/MAF. Given that the Board of Governors passed this regulation according to its deliberative process and pursuant to an express grant of authority from the Florida Legislature, this Court is inclined to believe that the Board means what it says. Defendants have also vigorously defended the IFA against legal challenges, which permits this Court to infer “an intent to enforce [the challenged statute] … .” Wollschlaeger, 848 F.3d at 1305 (quoting Harrell, 608 F.3d at 1257).

Universities are required to implement regulations barring promotion of the IFA’s prohibited viewpoints, and enforcement is all but ensured with the threat of financial ruin. The Professor Plaintiffs face a credible threat that their universities will discipline them—and potentially terminate their employment—if they promote or compel belief in any of the eight concepts.