DeSantis' national security power grab

( Salon) In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis is taking unprecedented steps to invoke national security on the state level to designate local groups as terrorist organizations — a move directly aimed at Muslim advocacy civil rights groups and pro-Palestinian activists. The problem, at least for Republicans in Florida, is that their new policy is in conflict with the First Amendment.

Earlier this month, DeSantis signed HB 1471, a bill giving the governor and his cabinet the power to designate any group they deem as engaging in “terrorist activity” as a terrorist organization, with the authority to dissolve those groups and prosecute anyone who has provided them material support. The law does not require the governor to disclose the basis for their designation, though it does set some parameters around why a group might be recommended for the designation. It also targets educational institutions by prohibiting them from promoting any such organization and, under certain circumstances, requires universities to expel students who express support for these groups.

In context, the bill is squarely aimed at the Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the leading Muslim civil rights organization in the United States. The bill was a legislative follow-up to an executive order signed by DeSantis earlier this year, designating CAIR as a “foreign terrorist organization” in the state of Florida.

The Florida government’s reasoning leans on CAIR being named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation’s terror financing trial from 2007, which concerned the financing of Palestinian charity organisations in Gaza. Notably, the United States federal government funded those same charities until the 9/11 terrorist attacks. At trial, prosecutors did not attempt to argue that the funds were used for something other than humanitarian aid, but instead that Palestinian charity organizations had ties to Hamas, the de facto governing body in Gaza. ....................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/04/17/desantis-national-security-power-grab/