REVOLT Insights Research Briefing March 2026 | Chaz Stevens

“Florida has, in its limited finite wisdom, passed a law banning the Greek Festival. I am not the problem here. I am the consequence.”

The Law They Didn’t Read

On March 10, 2026, the Florida Legislature passed SB 1134, the most sweeping anti-DEI bill to reach a governor’s desk in American history. The House voted 77-37. The Senate voted 25-11. Governor DeSantis is expected to sign it. It takes effect January 1, 2027.

The bill’s sponsors say it kills DEI. They’re right. It also kills the Greek Festival, the Italian Feast, the Caribbean Cultural Celebration, and every heritage event in Florida that touches a dollar of public money.

They just haven’t figured that out yet.

Last time, the Governor called my work “performative” and “political” — then signed a bill rewriting the law I broke. This time the problem is the same: they wrote a law so broad it eats the things they love. I didn’t write this law. I’m just reading it. Malicious compliance, here we come again. All aboard the stupid train.

What the Statute Actually Says

SB 1134 creates two new sections of Florida law — Section 125.595 for counties and Section 166.04971 for municipalities. Both contain identical operative language. The critical definition appears at subsection (1)(b):

“Diversity, equity, and inclusion” means any effort to:

1. Manipulate or otherwise influence the composition of employees with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation…
2. Promote or provide preferential treatment or special benefits to a person or group based on that person’s or group’s race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation; or
3. Promote or adopt training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.

Read subsection 3 again. It does not say “designed to discriminate.” It does not say “designed to provide preferential treatment.” It says “designed or implemented with reference to ethnicity.”

A Greek Heritage Festival is, by definition, programming designed with reference to Greek ethnicity. An Italian-American Heritage celebration is programming designed with reference to Italian ethnicity. A Caribbean Cultural Festival is programming designed with reference to Caribbean ethnicity. The statute does not distinguish between a Pride parade and a Greek Festival. Under the plain text, both are prohibited.

Why Subsection 3 Is the Kill Shot

Oh, I love this, one wonders what’s in the Tallahassee water, bong water I surmise — this is why we have Courts, both Federal and the Court of Public Opinion.

They’ll say heritage festivals are open to everyone, so it’s not DEI. But that argument ignores how the law is written. The statute has three separate triggers. Subsection 2 covers preferential treatment. Subsection 3 — the one that matters here — independently prohibits any programming “designed with reference to ethnicity.” No preferential treatment required. No restricted access required. Just programming designed with reference to ethnicity.

That’s what the county’s own grant guidelines say they fund.

If subsection 3 doesn’t mean what it says, it has no reason to exist — and courts don’t read statutes to make provisions disappear. The county will try to collapse subsection 3 into subsection 2, arguing that “designed with reference to ethnicity” really means “preferential treatment based on ethnicity.” But if that were true, subsection 3 would be surplusage — a redundant restatement of subsection 2. Courts do not read statutes to render provisions superfluous. Subsection 3 must have independent meaning. And its independent meaning is: programming designed with reference to ethnicity is prohibited, full stop.

Using stress testing, the Constitution and I intend to find out which reading survives.

The Prohibition & Enforcement

Section 125.595(2) states that a county “may not fund or promote, directly or indirectly, or take any official action” as it relates to DEI. A mayor opening a heritage festival is direct promotion. A city website listing is indirect promotion. A tourism bureau advertising the event is indirect promotion. A county grant funding the event is direct funding.

Section 125.595(6) provides the enforcement mechanism: “An action in circuit court may be brought by a resident of the county.” Any county resident. Circuit court. Declaratory and injunctive relief, plus damages and costs.

The Carveouts Don’t Save Them

The bill’s sponsors wrote carveouts into Section 125.595(7)(b). They protect:

What’s Protected: Federal holidays under 5 U.S.C. § 6103 (MLK Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, etc.). State holidays and observances under Florida Chapter 683 (Confederate Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Florida Jewish History Month, etc.). Patriotic observances under 36 U.S.C. §§ 101–148 (Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month, etc.). Content-neutral event permitting and public safety services.

What’s Conspicuously Absent: Greek Heritage. Italian-American Heritage. Caribbean Heritage. Haitian Heritage. Brazilian Heritage. The vast majority of ethnicity-based cultural programming that Florida’s counties and municipalities currently fund.

Italian-American Heritage and Culture Month exists only as a presidential proclamation — it is not codified in 36 U.S.C. §§ 101–148 and therefore is not protected by SB 1134’s carveout. The only safe harbor for heritage festivals is neutral permitting. Not promotion. Not sponsorship. Not funding. Not official endorsement.

This law was sold as a tool to eliminate progressive identity politics from local government. But the text doesn’t distinguish between a Pride parade and a Greek heritage festival. It doesn’t carve out Italian-American Heritage Month or Caribbean cultural celebrations. Wait until someone applies this to military appreciation events, church-funded community programs, or Blue Lives Matter proclamations — Blue Lives used to matter, I guess. Either the law applies to everyone equally, or it’s viewpoint discrimination.

The Smoking Gun in Broward County

Broward County — the same county Senator Yarborough cited on the Senate floor as his poster child for wasteful DEI spending — operates a Cultural Division that awarded nearly $6 million in grants to 91 cultural organizations in FY 2024.

The county’s own Cultural Festival Program guidelines describe fundable events as:

“…a day-long series of events designed to showcase various aspects of a given ethnic culture found in Broward County.”

That is Section 125.595(1)(b)(3) — “programming or activities designed or implemented with reference to ethnicity” — reflected back in the county’s own eligibility criteria. Broward County built a grant program whose stated purpose is the exact conduct SB 1134 prohibits.

Look, I’d rather be targeting ruby-red Pensacola and their Greek Festival — that’s the cleaner headline. But the statute requires county residency for standing, and I live in once-blue Broward. Sorry Stacy Ritter and Michael Udine — I think the world of you both — but the law doesn’t have a carveout for people I appreciate.

The Certification Trap

SB 1134 also creates Section 287.139, Florida Statutes, which requires that any potential recipient of a county contract or grant certify that the recipient does not and will not use county funds for materials relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Starting January 1, 2027, every organization receiving a Broward County cultural grant must sign this certification. Organizations whose entire purpose is ethnic heritage programming will have to sign a form saying their programming doesn’t reference ethnicity. That’s either perjury or defunding. Those are the only two options the statute provides.

The Structural Defect

This is the core problem with SB 1134, and it is the same structural defect that brought down Florida’s book-restriction laws when they were applied consistently.

If the definition is broad enough to cover heritage festivals — which the plain text supports — then the law is politically untenable. It kills programming the bill’s own supporters love. Italian Heritage Month, Greek Festivals, Columbus Day celebrations, and Caribbean cultural programming all fall.

If the definition is narrow enough to spare heritage festivals — because they are “open to everyone” or “merely cultural” — then the same logic protects Pride events, DEI trainings open to all staff, and inclusive programming of every kind. The law becomes toothless against its intended targets.

Either the statute applies to everyone, or it applies to no one. There is no principled middle ground that reaches Pride parades but spares Greek Festivals. The text does not support that distinction, and the Constitution does not permit it.

The Mootness Problem Is Solved

I previously sued the Broward County School Board pro se in the Southern District of Florida. The case was mooted after the district changed its policies. I’ve since learned my lesson — citing Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, 592 U.S. 279 (2021), I don’t expect mootness to be available moving forward should this file move to the Courts. Nominal damages keep the case alive even if the county rewrites its guidelines the day before trial.

What Happens Next

March 2026: Chapter 119 public records requests filed against Broward County Cultural Division, GFLCVB, and Broward County Attorney’s Office — engineered using the Stevens Method to force the county into a binary: either they reviewed the SB 1134 collision and have a legal position, or they haven’t and the admission is on the record.

March 2026: Formal demand letter served on the Broward County Attorney identifying the facial inconsistency between FY 2027 grant guidelines and SB 1134’s effective date, with a 30-day response deadline.

Day DeSantis Signs: Press release and media outreach announcing the first intended enforcement action under SB 1134 — targeting Broward County’s own heritage grants pipeline.

January 1, 2027: SB 1134 takes effect. Enforcement action filed in Broward County Circuit Court under § 125.595(6) by a Broward County resident.

Governor Ronrico should have me over for lunch and drinks. I’m the only person in Florida taking his silly law seriously. Like Janet Reno, I’ll be hitting the Florida roadways, teaching municipalities how to batten down the hatches when an adversary arrives.

Like my successful Bible Ban effort, here again I seek the extraordinary precise application of State law, be it silly or not. As I like to think, when the going gets stupid, I’m usually the first to go in.

For the record, I am pro-DEI, but like Nana says, when you gotta go, you gotta go.

Support This Work

Constitutional stress testing isn’t free. The records requests, the demand letters, the statutory analysis, the litigation preparation — this is full-time operational work funded entirely by people who believe that laws should mean what they say.

If you think SB 1134 should be applied consistently — to heritage festivals and Pride parades alike — or if you just enjoy watching the system explain itself under its own rules, your support makes this possible.

Donate to REVOLT Insights →

Every dollar funds the next records request, the next demand letter, the next filing. The stupid train runs on fuel.

FAQS

What is the Heritage Trap?

The Heritage Trap is a constitutional stress test of Florida’s SB 1134, the state’s sweeping anti-DEI law for local governments. Filed by civic activist Chaz Stevens, it applies the statute’s plain text against ethnicity-based heritage festivals — not Pride events or progressive programming — to expose the law’s structural overbreadth. The name references the fact that the statute’s broad definition of “DEI” inadvertently captures the heritage programming its own sponsors support.

What is SB 1134?

SB 1134 (CS for CS for SB 1134) is a Florida law passed on March 10, 2026 that prohibits counties and municipalities from funding, promoting, or taking official action related to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” It defines DEI to include any effort to “promote or adopt training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” The law takes effect January 1, 2027 and includes a private right of action allowing any county resident to sue in circuit court.

Does SB 1134 ban heritage festivals?

Under the plain text of Section 125.595(1)(b)(3), the statute prohibits programming “designed or implemented with reference to ethnicity.” A Greek Heritage Festival, Italian-American Heritage celebration, or Caribbean Cultural Festival is programming designed with reference to a specific ethnicity. The statute’s carveout provisions protect only federal holidays (5 U.S.C. § 6103), state holidays (Florida Chapter 683), and patriotic observances (36 U.S.C. §§ 101–148). Greek heritage, Italian-American heritage, Caribbean heritage, and most ethnicity-based cultural programming are not listed in any of those carveouts.

Who is Chaz Stevens?

Chaz Stevens is a Deerfield Beach-based civic activist, municipal governance consultant, and IMLA CLE Faculty member known for constitutional stress-testing of public forum neutrality. In 2022, he filed Bible ban challenges in dozens of Florida school districts using the state’s own book-restriction law, forcing Governor DeSantis to sign new legislation scaling it back. DeSantis’s office named Stevens as the sole cited reason for the change. Stevens is the founder of REVOLT Insights and previously made national news for installing a Festivus pole at the Florida State Capitol.

What is the Broward County smoking gun?

The Broward County Cultural Division’s Cultural Festival Program guidelines describe eligible programming as “a day-long series of events designed to showcase various aspects of a given ethnic culture found in Broward County.” This language mirrors SB 1134’s prohibition on programming “designed or implemented with reference to ethnicity.” The county’s own eligibility criteria use functionally identical language to the statute’s trigger provision.

What is the subsection 3 argument?

SB 1134’s definition of DEI has three independent triggers. Subsection 2 covers preferential treatment based on protected characteristics. Subsection 3 independently prohibits programming “designed or implemented with reference to ethnicity” — without requiring any showing of preferential treatment, special benefits, or restricted access. If subsection 3 were merely a restatement of subsection 2, it would be surplusage. Courts do not read statutes to render provisions superfluous. Subsection 3 must have independent meaning, and its independent meaning reaches heritage festivals on the plain text.

What is the Section 287.139 certification trap?

Starting January 1, 2027, Section 287.139 requires every county grant recipient to certify that it does not use county funds for DEI-related materials as defined by the statute. Organizations whose programming is “designed to showcase ethnic culture” — the county’s own description of funded events — may be unable to truthfully sign this certification without contradicting the purpose of their own programming.

Can Broward County avoid this by changing its grant guidelines?

If Broward County modifies its guidelines to remove ethnicity-referenced language before January 1, 2027, that may prevent a facial challenge. However, the demand letter already served on the County Attorney creates a paper trail establishing that the county was on notice of the inconsistency. If the county changes the language but continues funding the same programming under a neutral label, the Chapter 119 records requests will document that the substance did not change. Additionally, citing Uzuegbunam v. Preczewski, 592 U.S. 279 (2021), a claim for nominal damages can keep a case alive even if the government voluntarily ceases the challenged conduct.

What is the Stevens Method?

The Stevens Method is an applied institutional stress-testing framework developed by Chaz Stevens. It uses public records laws, administrative procedures, and formal complaint systems to force institutions to account for themselves in writing — or to admit that required processes were never followed. The Heritage Trap is an application of the Stevens Method to SB 1134.

How can I support this work?

Constitutional stress testing is funded entirely by supporters who believe laws should be applied consistently. Donations to REVOLT Insights fund records requests, demand letters, statutory analysis, and litigation preparation. Visit revolt.training/donate.