As I feared, Florida is indeed pushing the envelope on Garcetti and taking the position that faculty speech in the classroom at a public university is under the control of the state government:

Last Friday, Cooper told the three 11th Circuit judges that professors’ speech in the classroom is government speech, and “the state, when it is the speaker, it can choose what it wants to say.” Cooper said a state can “insist that professors not offer—or espouse, I should say, and endorse—viewpoints that are contrary to the state’s.”

One of the three judges on the panel, a Donald Trump appointee, later asked a question that showed how far Cooper’s argument could extend. The judge posed a hypothetical about how much the state could limit classroom teaching if the judges were to accept Cooper’s arguments: “Could a legislature prohibit professors from saying anything negative about a current gubernatorial administration?”

Cooper replied: “I think, your honor, yes, because in the classroom the professor’s speech is the government’s speech and the government can restrict professors on a content-wide basis and restrict them from offering viewpoints.”

Risa Lieberwitz, general counsel for the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), told Inside Higher Ed that “the state of Florida is making an extreme argument about the First Amendment that would eliminate academic freedom completely in the classroom, and that is an argument without merit under the First Amendment.”

If the 11th Circuit buys this argument, the Supreme Court will have to weigh in on the reach of Garcetti, and whether there is an exception for public university faculty.

ADDENDUM:  Being an instinctive authoritarian, Florida's Viktor DeSantis also recently vetoed all grants for the arts in Florida.  At least, he didn't denounce the arts as degenerate!