This is the Reason interview. I'm Zach Weissmuller. Thanks for listening. This is the audio version of a video live stream that takes place every Thursday at 1 p.m. Eastern time. Go to reason.com to check that out in real time or to our YouTube channel, YouTube.com, forward slash reason TV. The topic this week was a lawsuit

challenging California community colleges new diversity equity inclusion and accessibility,

or DEIA, teaching standards, which allegedly mandate viewpoint conformity and compel professors

to teach and preach the state's perspective,

according to a lawsuit called Paulsguard v. Christian, which was filed by the Foundation for

Individual Rights and Expression, or Fire. My co-host was Reasons Liz Wolf, and our guests

were fire attorney Jesse Appleby and Bill Blanken, a

plaintiff in the case. He's a chemistry professor at Reedley College in California, and he says

the standards advanced by the state's community college board amount to compelled speech in the

classroom and that he will not comply with them.

We talked about the details of the case, dove into the substance of the proposed changes

in the classroom, discussed the origins of the DEIA standards that now pervade academia

and the corporate world, and examine Fires other case against Florida's Stop Woke Act, which prohibits exactly

the kind of classroom instruction that California's new standards compel.

Here's the recent interview with Jesse Appleby and Bill Blankin.

Jesse, thank you for joining us today.

Thanks for having me.

We also are hoping we're going to be joined by a plaintiff in that suit, Bill Blanken. He's running a little bit behind, but he may join us later.

He's a chemistry professor at Reedley College in California.

But for now, let's jump right in with a look at the big picture here. Here's the lawsuit.

So Pauls Guard is one of the professors. There's a whole list of professors who are the plaintiffs.

And then on the other side of the ledger, we've got a list of various California Community College officials.

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