Federal judge blocks Florida governor’s foreign terrorist label of Muslim groups

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge temporarily blocked the enforcement on Wednesday of an executive order issued last year by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that designates two Muslim groups as foreign terrorist organizations.

U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker wrote in his preliminary injunction that the First Amendment bars the governor from continuing the troubling trend of using an executive office to make a political statement at the expense of others’ constitutional rights.

The governor’s order targeted the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood. His office didn’t immediately respond Wednesday evening to an email seeking comment about the judge’s order.

CAIR and other civil rights groups sued DeSantis in December, shortly after the executive order was issued. The group has more than 20 chapters across the United States, and its work involves legal actions, advocacy and education outreach. The lawsuit claims the executive order is unlawful and unconstitutional, specifically that DeSantis has usurped the exclusive authority of the federal government to identify and designate terrorist organizations.

The injunction will halt the executive order’s enforcement while the lawsuit moves forward.

“The question before this Court is whether the Governor can, in a non-emergency situation, unilaterally designate one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in America as a ‘terrorist organization’ and withhold government benefits from anyone providing material support or resources to the group,” Walker wrote.

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Anti-Muslim bias has persisted in different forms since Sept. 11, 2001, and there has been a rise in Islamophobia during more than two years of war in Gaza.

CAIR said in the Florida lawsuit that it has always condemned terrorism and violence. The lawsuit alleges DeSantis targeted the group for defending the free speech rights of people in cases where state officials and officials elsewhere tried to punish or silence those who expressed support for Palestinian human rights.

The executive order also gives the same “foreign terrorist” label to the Muslim Brotherhood, a pan-Arab Islamist political movement. President Donald Trump in January issued an executive order that designates three Middle Eastern branches of the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.

The governor’s order instructs Florida agencies to prevent the two groups and those who have provided them material support from receiving contracts, employment and funds from a state executive or cabinet agency.

Florida has an estimated 500,000 Muslim residents, according to CAIR.