Governor, Cabinet approve designation of CAIR as a domestic terrorist group

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted Tuesday to designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations, along with two other groups, as domestic terrorist organizations, and added more than 90 federally listed foreign terrorist groups to the state registry. It is DeSantis's third attempt, after a December executive order was blocked by a federal injunction and a subsequent state law drew a new lawsuit from CAIR.

The Cabinet's supporting documents lean on CAIR's 2007 listing as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation case, alleged ties between founding members and Hamas figures, and a 2014 UAE terrorist designation. Those documents also include a rebuttal from Middlebury Institute professor Jason Blazakis, who wrote that DeSantis 'has not assembled an administrative record' and that the evidence is 'grossly insufficient' by federal standards.

CAIR has more than 25 Florida chapters and describes itself as the country's most prominent Muslim civil rights organization. The federal government has never designated CAIR or its chapters under either of its own terrorism-designation regimes, despite the same materials being public for years.

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