DeSantis signs broad anti-terrorism law critics say targets free speech

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Following a speech that focused on Muslim groups and religious rules, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday a measure that gives the state the power to label certain groups as terrorist organizations and dissolve their nonprofit status.

It also prohibits public schools and universities from funding educational programs that the state claims promotes terrorism and requires them to expel students who show, in a disruptive or disorderly manner, their support for a state designated terrorist group’s “extralegal violence.”

The new law, which was drafted by the governor’s staff, according to the Tampa Bay Times, also makes it a felony for anyone to provide “material support” to state-designated terrorist organizations.

The vaguely written law is meant to bolster “public safety, our culture, and our security” and protect against “Sharia law,” DeSantis said during a news conference at the University of South Florida in Tampa before signing the bill.

Sharia is a set of religious guidelines for Muslims to follow, based on the Koran and other holy scriptures.

“We don’t want money flowing to these groups that are appendages of terrorist groups,” DeSantis said, specifically calling out the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations as groups likely to be the first targeted by the new law. “We’ll do millions for public safety, millions for education but never one red cent for Jihad.”

Critics say the law is “draconian,” unfairly targets Muslims and will stifle protected speech.

The law gives the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s chief of domestic security the power to designate certain groups as terrorist organizations, with the approval of DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet, which is made up of the Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer and Commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

CAIR-Florida Executive Director Hiba Rahim said the organization was already unjustly targeted when DeSantis “falsely labeled CAIR as terrorists without lawful authority or evidence,” according to a statement released after the bill’s signing.

“This expanded and deeply-flawed framework can attack any organization that dares to dissent,” Rahim said. “As Floridians, together, we’ll watch how this unprecedented law is enforced, and whether it is used or abused.”

CAIR describes itself as the largest Muslim civil liberties and advocacy group in the United States.

In his comments, DeSantis also mentioned two non-Islamic groups as other potential targets for the new law — Antifa, a decentralized group of anti-fascists labeled by the White House as domestic terrorists, and Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan terrorist organization.

The new law also sent alarm bells through Florida’s Muslim community because it specifically references Sharia law and could bar private schools from receiving vouchers if the state deems they are affiliated with these groups. Students use vouchers to pay tuition at nearly 2,500 campuses across the state. A tiny fraction of those schools, less than 1%, are Islamic. Most are Christian.

The law could also chill free speech by placing pressure on individuals to avoid speaking, organizing, or engaging with certain viewpoints, the American Civil Liberties Union and other groups have warned.

The new law “opens the door for Florida students to face punishment for constitutionally protected speech,” said William Johnson, the Florida director of PEN America, a free speech group. “The bill could allow for the targeting of student protesters and activists who criticize the Florida government or express views that conflict with those of state officials.”

And it undercuts the due process rights of organizations that want to challenge them, the group said, by protecting the state from disclosing any information it used to determine whether an organization meets the criteria to be designated a terrorist organization.

But Lt. Gov. Jay Collins issued a stern warning to civil rights groups that challenge the law.

“To the ACLU, Equality Florida, CAIR and others who scream overreach because this law cuts off taxpayer cash to groups whose ideologies are not aligned with our constitution or way of life, I hope you never have to hear screams of women, children and innocent,” said Collins, who is running for governor this year.

DeSantis acknowledged that civil rights groups will probably challenge the new law in court, but he said, “We will win on appeal.”

He called CAIR an unindicted co-conspirator in terrorist activities, a charge the group denies.

“Is there a school aligned with CAIR that should have any of your money going to that?” DeSantis asked. “I think not.”

He also highlighted acts of terrorism like 9/11 and a recent shooting at Old Dominion University by a former Army National Guardsman and naturalized U.S. citizen who spent eight years in prison for trying to help the Islamic State and shouted “Allahu Akbar” before he was killed by ROTC students.

“If you are convicted of supporting terrorism, you should be de-naturalized,’ DeSantis said.

And he noted the recent arrest in Los Angeles of the niece and grandniece of the dead leader of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Gen Qasem Soleimani. The U.S. State Department issued a news release Saturday that their U.S. permanent resident status was revoked.

“We have to stop importing people that reject the country’s values,” DeSantis said.

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