Overview

• U.S. District Judge David Proctor denied a preliminary injunction request, allowing SB 129 to take effect while the legal challenge proceeds.
• The law bars public schools from funding or sponsoring DEI initiatives and prohibits compelling students to affirm eight specified race- and gender-related “divisive concepts.”
• In his ruling, Proctor noted that SB 129 permits classroom discussion of the listed concepts as long as the instruction remains objective and does not endorse the ideas.
• Plaintiffs say the law has prompted professors to scale back coverage of topics like the Black Power and Black Lives Matter movements and led the university to close designated student resource spaces.
• The case continues to challenge the law’s restrictions on academic freedom and programs serving Black and other minority students in the context of a broader wave of anti-DEI legislation nationwide.