GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law Monday in Tampa to allow state officials to designate foreign or domestic terrorist organizations, similar to the broad powers of the federal government. Democrats and other critics warned it could strangle free speech, open the door to political abuse and fan Islamophobia.
At a press conference, DeSantis called the measure “the strongest action Florida has ever taken against terror.”
“We shouldn’t have people in this country that hate this country,” the governor said, speaking from a lectern with a sign in front featuring the universal “no” symbol followed by “Sharia Law.” “That’s been a problem for decades.”
The Florida House passed the measure last month on a strictly party-line vote, 80-25. The Senate had earlier approved the legislation on a 24-9 vote, with two Republicans voting no.
The new law, which takes effect July 1, allows the chief of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to designate domestic and foreign terrorist organizations if the groups engage in terrorist activity and are an ongoing threat to the state.
The governor and Cabinet must approve the designation. Sensitive information regarding the designation would be exempt from public disclosure under a companion bill approved by state lawmakers over opposition from Democrats. They expressed concerns about groups to effectively appeal their designation if they can’t obtain relevant information.
The new law bans public school vouchers – hugely popular in Florida, where the school choice program is the largest in the U.S. – for private schools with affiliations to a designated foreign or domestic terrorist organization.
That was widely perceived to be a possible mechanism to block school voucher funding to Islamic private schools that could be tied to Sharia, the body of Islamic religious law. Many families in Florida use vouchers to send students to private Christian or Jewish schools.
The measure also would bar Florida’s public higher education institutions from using state or federal funds to “promote, support, or maintain” any programs or campus activities advocating for state-designated terrorist organizations. DeSantis previously tried unsuccessfully to ban chapters of a pro-Palestinian group, Students for Justice in Palestine, at two public universities in Florida.
Supporters say the new law is aimed at terrorist activity, not ideology or speech.
“It ensures taxpayer dollars are not used to support terrorism, whether through school-choice vouchers or public institutions, including our universities,” said Rep. Hillary Cassel, R-Hollywood, a sponsor of the bill in the House.
“Advocacy, lobbying, litigating, protesting, and organizing do not meet this definition” of terrorism, Cassel said. “The bill targets conduct, not belief, and protects free speech, religious liberty and due process.”
Critics, including Omar Saleh, an attorney with the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Florida, a Muslim civil rights group, said the law is intended to disenfranchise Muslims by interfering with their mosques, religious schools and funding.
In Texas, some Islamic schools have begun losing funding through a similar effort, as the state’s new $1 billion voucher program excluded about two dozen Muslim schools for allegedly being linked to terrorist groups. The Texas state comptroller said aid to the schools was barred because they had hosted events organized by CAIR, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott labeled a terrorist organization in November.
Saleh said the effort in Florida stems from a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker temporarily blocking DeSantis’s Dec. 8 executive order designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations.
The new law “seeks to codify DeSantis’s illegal executive order,” said Saleh. “They know they’re illegal, and they want to employ a chilling effect.”
The governor said Monday he anticipated legal challenges to the law but believed the state would prevail.
DeSantis said that the state was “strong” in designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations.
CAIR is not federally designated as a foreign terror organization. The Lebanese branch of the Muslim Brotherhood is on the list. The U.S. State Department list also includes groups such as ISIS, the Cartel de Sinaloa and Hamas, among dozens of others. The federal government does not maintain an official list of domestic terror groups similar to the list of foreign organizations.
“If there is a school aligned with CAIR, should you have any of your money going to things like that? I think not,” DeSantis said.
Under the new law, an organization would have to be on the federal government’s foreign terror list for Florida to issue a state designation that it is a foreign terror group; the state could designate a domestic terror group as such if it is engaged in “terroristic activity” and poses an ongoing threat to the Florida or the country.
DeSantis previously tried to order universities to disband Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at the University of Florida and University of South Florida in October 2023. The group’s national chapter had released a pro-Palestine statement after the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. DeSantis said that constituted material support for terrorism.
Under the new law signed by the governor, state university students who promote state-designated terror groups could be expelled.
“Florida has engaged in a series of xenophobic actions to try to target unpopular minorities, including Chinese and Muslims,” said Justin Sadowsky, an attorney who worked on the court fight to save the chapters. “I’m a Jewish person who previously worked for CAIR – that should tell you a lot.”
DeSantis indicated during the press conference that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was ready to begin implementing the new law once it takes effect. He mentioned Antifa, a violent left-wing anarchist movement, and Tren de Aragua, a transnational Venezuelan gang, as groups that could be in the state’s sights.
Jasmine McNealy, a lawyer and University of Florida professor in the College of Journalism and Communications studying privacy and communities, said the new law is overly broad.
“The language within the bill is such that it could be used for political purposes,” McNealy said. “Any group could be surveilled.”
The new law contains provisions against Sharia.
Lt. Gov. Jay Collins, a 2026 Republican gubernatorial candidate, joined DeSantis at the press conference and praised the new restrictions on Sharia Law in Florida.
In Iran, Collins said, marriages of minors are permitted under Islamic law. “There will be no honor killings… not now, not ever in the free state of Florida,” Collins said.
The law prohibits courts from enforcing religious or foreign law, specifically citing Sharia, as an example of a “religious law.” DeSantis called the new law the “most robust action” against Sharia of any state in the country.
Democratic lawmakers and Islamic advocacy groups have warned that provision could lead to a rise in Islamophobia.
Legal experts said the law will be challenged in court by civil rights and Muslim advocacy groups.
McNealy noted that the Florida Constitution establishes a state-level right to privacy and said the new law may violate that.
The constitution “prohibits government agencies, without a rationale, from intruding into people’s right to be left alone,” McNealy said, adding that the law amounts to “basically surveillance.”
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at elizabethmaguire@ufl.edu. You can donate to support our students here.