Florida’s DeSantis administration voted to label CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood, and about 90 other groups as domestic terrorists, and civil-liberties lawyers immediately moved to stop it in court.
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration cast the vote Tuesday, expanding the state’s terror designations in a step that also tagged al-Qaeda, the Houthis, and the Continuity Irish Republican Army as foreign terrorist organizations, Just the News reported.
The domestic labels are set to take effect Nov. 5 unless a court blocks them first. CAIR has already sued the state, and the ACLU says it will seek a preliminary injunction on behalf of CAIR-Florida.
A 427-page document accompanying the vote stated there is “substantial evidence that CAIR is engaging in terrorist activity.” The same package accused CAIR of connections to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Texas and Florida labeled the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations last year. That earlier action forbade both organizations and their affiliates from purchasing or acquiring land in the states and opened the door to increased enforcement.
Florida’s earlier foreign designation came by executive order and tracked a similar move by Texas. The order directed state agencies to take lawful measures against the groups, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support, the New York Post reported.
Neither CAIR nor the Muslim Brotherhood carries a federal terrorist designation from the U.S. government. DeSantis’s order still framed the Muslim Brotherhood’s Islamist ideology as irreconcilable with foundational American principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and it described a Brotherhood-linked effort behind CAIR’s formation, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
CAIR rejected the foreign-terror branding at the time and pledged a court fight, calling the order defamatory and unconstitutional. That legal posture has now extended to the newer domestic designation.
Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national security project, said Tuesday the state’s notice does not meet the threshold required for a step this serious.
Shamsi, whose organization is representing CAIR, told reporters:
"There is nowhere in that notice any allegation or evidence that CAIR has engaged in any violent or dangerous act in violation of Florida or U.S. law,"
She added:
"That's the first requirement for something as serious as this."
ACLU attorneys said they intended to file a motion Thursday seeking a preliminary injunction to block the designation for CAIR-Florida. CAIR’s lawsuit accuses DeSantis of violating the First Amendment and the due process clause of the 14th Amendment.
Beyond the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR, the domestic package sweeps in roughly 90 other groups. On the foreign side, Florida also now treats the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, two Mexican drug cartels, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as foreign terrorist organizations, CBS News reporting cited in the coverage shows.
State terror labels are not the same as a federal listing. They still carry real consequences inside Florida: restricted land acquisition for designated foreign organizations and their affiliates, plus wider room for enforcement against the named groups.
Implementation has already drawn court scrutiny around the underlying state authority. Florida officials have delayed enforcement of the newer designation law while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement finishes implementing regulations, and no designation was to be made before those rules were finalized, the Washington Examiner reported. Parties were directed to update the court by July 22, with no public timeline given for when the rules would be complete.
The domestic designations from Tuesday still carry a stated effective date of Nov. 5 if courts do not strike them down first. That leaves the injunction fight and the regulatory process on a collision course with the calendar.
Florida’s sequence is deliberate. First came the foreign-organization labels with Texas. Then came the thicker domestic package, backed by a hundreds-of-pages state document alleging terrorist activity and Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad ties for CAIR.
CAIR’s answer has been litigation, free-speech claims, and due-process claims. The ACLU’s core attack is narrower still: the notice, Shamsi argues, never alleges a violent or dangerous act under Florida or federal law.
Voters and taxpayers are left with a plain choice about what state power is for. Either Florida may act on the evidence its own agencies compiled, or activist groups can keep the designations frozen while the legal process runs.
Designations that never take effect are paperwork. Florida put names on a list, published a lengthy supporting record, and set a date. The courts will decide whether the public actually gets the enforcement that list was written to deliver.
