Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet have scheduled a teleconference for Friday, the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack, to impose an emergency rule that spells out how Florida puts terrorist labels on various groups.
The rule change announced Thursday follows legislation passed earlier this year. It establishes the state’s Chief of Domestic Security, currently Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass, will provide notice to the governor and Cabinet of plans to designate an organization as a domestic or foreign terrorist organization. Once approved by the governor and Cabinet, the designation would become effective 30 days after being published in the Florida Administrative Register.
Groups put on the list would have seven days of being noticed to object in writing and provide documentation the organization believes would counsel against the designation.
On July 1, the first day the law was in effect, DeSantis declared his intention to put the label on the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood, the anti-fascism movement known as antifa, and more than 90 foreign organizations already designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, including the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua, two Mexican drug cartels, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran.
READ MORE: CAIR v. Ron DeSantis and the State of Florida: What’s behind the terror designation?
CAIR quickly filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee, contending DeSantis is violating their First Amendment rights.
Other parts of the law bar a court from enforcing any provision of a religious or foreign law and require a student in the Florida College System who “promotes” terrorist organizations to be expelled.
The law defines “promotion” as when a student’s actions can be “reasonably interpreted” as an actual threat of violence; disrupt the learning environment; infringe upon the rights of others; or offer “material support for or the recruitment of members for such an organization.”
The law also bars schools affiliated with designated terrorist organizations from receiving state K-12 scholarship program money. Also, public universities and colleges are prohibited from spending state or federal funds to support programs or campus activities that promote a designated terrorist organization.
The bill was approved in the Republican-controlled Legislature by votes of 80-25 in the House and 25-11 in the Senate.
