Federal appeals court rejects DeSantis’ suit against ‘woke’ college accreditation process, again

A federal appeals court affirmed Monday dismissal of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2023 challenge to the college accrediting process, which he believes enforces diversity and related interests he considers “woke.”

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit rejected the state’s argument that existing accrediting agencies wield unchecked power to overrule Florida’s political decisions about how its universities operate — in other words, that the system gives “unconstitutionally delegated governmental power to these private accreditors.”

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida earlier rejected the state’s claim. The appeal questioned whether the federal government can rely on ratings by private accreditors to disburse federal funds.

In announcing the lawsuit in 2023, DeSantis complained “a totally unaccountable, unappointed, unelected accrediting agency can trump what the state of Florida is doing.”

At the time the lawsuit was filed, President Joe Biden, a Democrat, was in the White House and DeSantis was running for the GOP nomination to be president. 

“Florida asserts that accreditors exercise government power in the form of legislative rule-setting power and executive decision-making power,” Judge Andrew Brasher wrote in an 18-page opinion affirming that Florida had no claim. “But a wall of precedent establishes that accreditors exercise neither kind of authority.”

Florida lawmakers have taken particular affront at what has happened in state universities in recent years, largely in the year the lawsuit was filed. That’s when the Legislature passed and DeSantis signed SB 266, in part prohibiting universities from advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, the law allowed leniency if following the law would take a university out of compliance with its accreditor, since federal funds are contingent on accreditation.

Given that, then-Attorney General Ashley Moody complained the system violates numerous provisions of the U.S. Constitution, including delegating too much authority to accreditation agencies. The lawsuit argued that the process of accessing federal student aid under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 violates the Spending Clause by not providing fair notice of conditions required to access the funds.

“Even though accreditation has a bearing on eligibility for Title IV funding, this connection does not mean that accreditors are exercising Congress’s spending power,” Brasher wrote.

In April, the two sides participated in oral arguments.

Florida leaders also clashed with its accrediting agency in 2021, when the one grading Florida State University warned against former House Speaker Richard Corcoran becoming FSU president, given that, at the time, Corcoran sat on the board that would vote on the presidency.

Brasher, a President Donald Trump appointee, was joined by William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, and Nancy Abudu, a Biden appointee.

A year ago, DeSantis announced that Florida was spearheading creation of a new university accreditor to “upend” “woke accreditation cartels.”

Under this still-developing accreditation agency, universities would no longer need to “bend the knee” to get accredited, DeSantis said. A new accreditation agency, DeSantis said last year, wasn’t feasible during Biden’s presidency. New accreditation agencies need approval from the federal government.

This article appears in July 02 – 08, 2026.