Advocates fear Florida’s domestic terrorist law could reach beyond Muslim groups • Florida Phoenix

TAMPA — One day after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation (HB 1471) granting a handful of public officials power to designate a domestic terrorist organization, members of a likely target of the law warned it could reach beyond Muslim organizations.

The Florida chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), as well as representatives from Christian and Jewish groups and progressive advocates, issued that warning during a news conference Tuesday.

On Monday, DeSantis said on the University of South Florida campus that police were “working already” to place that domestic terrorist organization designation on CAIR Florida and the Muslim Brotherhood, putting into statute what he previously attempted to do by executive order in December. A federal judge blocked that order last month.

“Today it may be about Muslims, Palestinian advocates, immigrants, students, and nonprofits,” said the Rev. Andy Oliver of the Allendale United Methodist Church in St. Petersburg Tuesday at the press conference at CAIR Florida’s Tampa office.

“Tomorrow it will be whoever else refuses to be quiet. This is not only a Muslim issue. This is a Florida issue. This is a democracy issue. Because once the state claims the power to brand one disfavored group as beyond the protection of the Constitution, no community is safe for long.”

“As Jews, we are ever mindful of the many stages of the Holocaust, and the insidious nature of the propaganda that enabled its evils,” said Charlie Rogers of the Progressive Jewish Coalition. “Today, bills like this target them. Tomorrow it could be me. But history tells us these measures never stop with just one people.”

DeSantis did note two non-Islamic groups that he said could potentially be labeled domestic terrorist groups — Antifa and Tren de Aragua. Antifa is anti-fascist faction considered not to be one group per se but rather a coalition of left-leaning individuals (that the White House labeled a domestic terrorist group last year). Tren de Aragua is an international criminal organization based in Venezuela.

The law, which will go into effect July 1, gives the power to designate a domestic terrorist organization to just five individuals — the chief of domestic security, who would provide written notice to the governor and the three members of the Florida Cabinet. No earlier than seven days later, the governor and Cabinet would vote to approve or reject the designation. Within seven days of their vote, the designation must be published in the Florida Administrative Register. The organization targeted could challenge the decision within 30 days in the Second Judicial Circuit Court in Leon County.

Under Florida law, the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement serves as chief of domestic security.

The legislation passed mostly along party lines in the GOP-controlled Legislature last month, with only two Miami Republicans, Sens. Ileana Garcia and Alexis Calayatud, dissenting. However, the bill has caused some concern with Republicans no longer serving in the Legislature.

Unintended consequences?

Former Panhandle House Republican Joel Rudman, a physician who performs in a rock band, said the measure reminded him of the Parents Musical Research Group (PMRC) from the 1980s, which pressured the music industry to post “Parental Advisory” labels on songs they alleged promoted violence, drug use, and sexual deviance.

“I think that when you give that much authority to an elected, or, in the case of this bill, sometimes non-elected officials, I think that’s very dangerous,” Rudman told a Phoenix reporter on WMNF radio in Tampa last week.

“Now my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle, I’m sure they’re looking at this bill, saying, ‘These statutes. They can’t be warped. They can’t be abused. We have no intention of abusing them.’ But you have to understand that every bill you pass into law, there’s going to have some unintended consequences, and you have to be prepared for how those statutes are going to be interpreted when you’re not the majority party. … I think any constitutional conservatives Republicans should have a problem with that bill.”

Rep. Lindsay Cross, D-St. Petersburg, echoed much of her caucus in a posting on social media Tuesday.

“Placing unilateral power in the hands state officials to designate domestic terrorist organizations is unjust and un-American,” she wrote on X. “I stood against this bill on the House floor and its abuse of executive power in Florida.”

DeSantis on Monday also signed an accompanying bill (HB 1473) into law. That measure creates a public records exemption for “information critical to state or national security” related to the designation of a domestic terrorist organization.

“This allows the governor and his appointees to do all of this under cover of darkness,” said Miranda Margolis of the Tampa chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. “Under this bill, the general public has no oversight over the process for designating a group a domestic terrorist organization and no mechanism to remove the governor’s appointees for abusing their authority.”

Sharia law

Hiba Rahim, executive director of CAIR Florida, said the DeSantis administration and the bill sponsors — Republicans Hillary Cassel from Dania Beach in the House and Erin Grall from Vero Beach in the Senate — are spinning the legislation as an “anti-Sharia law” measure. Rahim noted that only a couple of pages in the 28-page bill address religious law and only one sentence contains the word, “Sharia.”

She said that’s because the new law really isn’t about Sharia at all.

“Our courts already do not allow any foreign law to supersede the Constitution of the land,” Rahim said.

“That protection is already there, my brothers and sisters, and no Muslim from the people to the pulpit advocates bringing Sharia to America. So why do they focus on that? Because it’s a distraction. What this actually is is an anti-free speech law. It’s an anti-due process law. It’s an anti-First Amendment law.

“And that’s why the masses of the people mobilized against it. Because some people were able to see through these lies and deception. But most Floridians were misled by highlighting the smallest, least relevant part of the bill, interjected just to lead people astray, while ignoring the part that truly should alarm every single of one of us.”

The provision regarding Sharia law prevents Florida courts from recognizing or enforcing foreign judgements, contracts, or legal provisions that conflict with constitutional protections. Cassel boasted to Florida’s Voice on Monday that Florida is the first state to ban Sharia law.

“It was really important to myself and my Senate sponsor and the governor’s office that we call out the things that for those of us who are paying attention to what’s going on around the world, that Sharia law is incompatible with our values and our principals here in the United States and we need to say it, ” she said.