Florida Governor DeSantis Again Designates CAIR, Antifa Terrorist Organizations

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is moving quickly to use a new law to designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood, Antifa, and dozens of other groups as terrorist organizations while critics raise First Amendment concerns.Last year, Mr. DeSantis tried to designate CAIR as a terrorist organization via executive order. However, a federal district court judge, Mark Walker, blocked the designation, finding that the governor lacked the authority to “unilaterally designate” a group as a terrorist organization in a “non-emergency situation.”After Judge Walker’s ruling, Florida’s legislature passed a law that gives the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s head of domestic security the power to decide that a group is a terrorist organization. The designation has to be approved by the Florida Cabinet. Every member of the Cabinet is a Republican, and two — the chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, and the attorney general, James Uthmeier — were appointed by Mr. DeSantis. The terrorism law took effect on Wednesday, and hours later, Mr. DeSantis said he received a recommendation from the Department of Law Enforcement to designate CAIR and roughly 90 other groups as foreign terrorist organizations. In a post on X, Mr. DeSantis wrote, “Last December, I signed an Executive Order to eliminate the influence of radical terrorist ideologies and the organizations that promote them in Florida. This year, I signed legislation to strengthen those protections and give Florida permanent statutory tools to combat terrorism while defending the Constitutional rights of our citizens.”“Today, we are officially designating terrorist organizations under Florida law. In addition to CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood, we are adding Antifa to the list—along with more than 90 Foreign Terrorist Organizations, including cartels,” he added.CAIR has not been designated as a terrorist organization by the federal government. However, Mr. DeSantis pointed out that the group was labeled an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 prosecution of the Texas-based Holy Land Foundation.”Prosecutors said that some of CAIR’s founders had connections to the Palestine Committee, a group backed by the Muslim Brotherhood that supports Hamas. A spokesman for CAIR, Scott McCoy, said in a statement, “Gov. DeSantis is seeking to unilaterally silence a leading American civil rights nonprofit and punish those who support it.”Mr. McCoy said that the Southern Poverty Law Center plans to challenge the designation in court. The terrorism law requires that public colleges and universities expel students who “promote” designated terrorist organizations. The law describes “promotion” as actions that can be “reasonably interpreted” as threats of violence or disruptions to the learning environment, infringing upon the rights of others, or offering “material support for or the recruitment of members for such an organization.” It also prohibits schools that are affiliated with such organizations from receiving state scholarship funds.In May, the executive director of the Florida-based First Amendment Foundation, Bobby Block, said his organization was preparing a legal challenge. In a statement, Mr. Block said, “We already have laws to address criminal conduct and material support for violent acts. What we should not tolerate is government creating vague and expansive powers that can be weaponized against lawful speech, association and dissent.”The First Amendment Foundation started a GoFundMe page to raise funds for litigation, warning that it “stigmatizes” and punishes groups, “all without a trial.”“In this country, we punish acts. We do not criminalize ideas. We do not assign guilt by association. This law crosses that line,” the foundation says.A Democratic state representative who opposed the law, Lindsay Cross, wrote on X after it was signed into law, “Placing unilateral power in the hands state officials to designate domestic terrorist organizations is unjust and un-American.”While critics have raised due process concerns about the law, a supporter of the law, Susan Valdes, told the Florida Phoenix that the bill has due process protections as it requires a “concurrence of other independently elected statewide officials” to make a terrorist designation, and that the authority does not rest in one person.

Florida Governor DeSantis Again Designates CAIR, Antifa Terrorist Organizations

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