Florida governor signs ‘terrorist’ designation law, raises free speech and due process concerns
By Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, April 6 (Reuters) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a measure that gives him and other state officials the power to designate groups as “terrorist organizations” and expel students who support them, with rights groups saying the law will cripple free speech.
The law empowers the state’s head of homeland security, governor and cabinet to designate as a “terrorist organization” any organization they believe is engaging in extremist acts.
After such a designation, the group can be forcibly dissolved and face a freeze on public funding, according to the law. It also specifies that students will be expelled from their institution if they “promote a domestic terrorist organization or a foreign terrorist organization.”
DeSantis, a Republican, signed the law Monday.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, one of the nation’s most prominent Muslim rights groups, called the law “draconian” and unconstitutional in a statement released Monday.
Late last year, DeSantis signed an executive order designating CAIR a “foreign terrorist organization.” CAIR sued against the designation, and a judge ultimately blocked the order.
Free speech group PEN America says the measure DeSantis signed “could cripple free speech by placing unprecedented pressure on individuals to avoid speaking, organizing, or engaging with certain viewpoints.”
In November, Texas also designated CAIR a “terrorist organization,” alleging the rights group had ties to extremists. CAIR also filed a lawsuit over this designation and denied the claims.
Darryl Li, a legal scholar at the University of Chicago, and Shirin Sinnar, a law professor at Stanford Law School, said in a joint article in February that Texas and Florida’s push for such designations “could lay the groundwork for even more radical forms of authoritarianism.”
Republican President Donald Trump’s administration and some Republican-governed states have “cracked down on left-wing organizations and pro-Palestinian groups that they characterize as extremist, anti-Semitic and anti-American.”
These groups reject the allegations and say the crackdown violates free speech and due process. They also say that these states and the Trump administration confuse “pro-Palestinian advocacy with support for extremism, and criticism of US ally Israel’s assault on Gaza and its occupation of Palestinian territories with anti-Semitism.”
Trump’s attempts to expel some protesters and freeze funds for universities where protests were taking place have faced legal obstacles.
PEN America Florida Director William Johnson said the Florida legislation “opens the door for Florida students to face punishment for constitutionally protected speech.”
DeSantis presented the legislation as a framework to combat extremism and hold the education system accountable.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Aurora Ellis)
