Related videos:
The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, signed the HB 1471 law last Sunday, which grants state authorities the power to designate groups as domestic or foreign terrorist organizations, cut university funding to those who promote them, and expel students from public universities linked to such organizations, reported AP.
The regulation, which comes into effect on July 1, 2026, according to CBS News, is the legislative response to the executive order that DeSantis signed in December 2025 to designate the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations, an order that a federal judge blocked on March 4, 2026 on the grounds that the governor had overstepped the federal government's exclusive authority in this matter.
Under the new legal framework, the head of the Florida Department of Homeland Security will be able to recommend terrorist designations, subject to approval by a majority of the governor and their cabinet.
For foreign groups, the law requires them to be listed in the federal terrorist registry beforehand; for domestic groups, Florida may act based on its own criteria without the need for federal designation.
The law allows for the expulsion of students from state universities who promote support for designated organizations when their actions are interpreted as a threat of violence, disruptive to the learning environment, violating the rights of others, or as material support or recruitment for those groups.
Additionally, it cuts state funds and university resources for groups or individuals that promote designated organizations, prohibits school vouchers for private schools affiliated with them, and bars Florida courts from applying foreign or religious laws, with explicit emphasis on Sharia law.
The legislation passed in the Florida House with 80 votes in favor and 25 against, and in the Senate with 25 in favor and 11 against, reported the Miami Herald.
DeSantis publicly acknowledged that he anticipates the new law will face legal challenges, given the judicial precedent that blocked his previous executive order.
Critics have been emphatic in their warnings. Hiba Rahim, the interim executive director of CAIR-Florida, stated that the law threatens freedom of expression, religious liberty, and due process, allowing for the labeling of mosques or charities based on secret evidence.
PEN America warned this past Sunday that the regulation grants broad and vague authority to officials to label organizations as domestic terrorists without disclosing grounds, which could inhibit dissent, peaceful protest, and association.
Neither the Muslim Brotherhood nor CAIR appear on the federal list of terrorist organizations in the United States, making Florida one of the first states to attempt to establish its own mechanism to designate them as such at the state level.
The law is part of a trend among Republican states driven by pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses.
Texas was the first state to act: Governor Greg Abbott designated the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as terrorists in November 2025, a measure that DeSantis replicated weeks later through an executive order.
At the federal level, President Donald Trump issued an executive order in January 2026 designating three branches of the Muslim Brotherhood from the Middle East as terrorist organizations.
The lieutenant governor Jay Collins declared that severe penalties will be imposed on those who associate with designated groups.
Filed under: