DeSantis Designates CAIR and Antifa as Terrorist Organizations

Governor Ron DeSantis announced the first official terrorist designations under Florida law HB 1471 on July 1, 2026. The proposed list includes domestic groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Muslim Brotherhood, and Antifa, alongside more than 90 foreign entities, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and cartels such as Sinaloa and Tren de Aragua.

Under the new statutory framework, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement identifies potential threats, which the Governor and Florida Cabinet must then ratify. The law prohibits state and local governments from providing taxpayer funding or contracts to designated groups and bars K-12 scholarship funds from reaching affiliated schools. Additionally, the law mandates the expulsion of state university students who promote these organizations and prohibits state courts from applying religious laws, specifically Islamic sharia.

In immediate response, CAIR and CAIR Florida filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Supported by the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center, the lawsuit seeks an injunction to block enforcement, arguing that the designations violate the First Amendment and grant the executive branch unbridled discretion without a neutral decisionmaker. The move follows a previous executive order by DeSantis that was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.