Skip to content

Florida and Texas designate CAIR as 'terrorist' organization

newsJul 31, 202619207

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Governor Greg Abbott added the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights nonprofit, to their states' terrorism lists. The move follows an emerging trend of state-level terrorism designation regimes and drew attention in a New York Times story and commentary from legal experts. CAIR has filed legal challenges in Texas and Florida arguing the designations violate its rights to free speech, assembly, and due process. In Florida the stakes are heightened by a new law that makes knowingly offering "material support" a felony, creating potential criminal exposure for donors and affiliates. Legal analysts including ICNL Senior Legal Adviser Elly Page have flagged constitutional implications and court testing that is likely to follow. The immediate consequence is pending litigation that will determine whether states can independently impose terrorism labels and enforce related penalties against a civil rights organization.

1 source