The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has formally ceased all on-the-ground activities across Florida, following a federal court ruling that refused to roll back a state-imposed “domestic terrorist organization” designation targeting the prominent Muslim civil rights group. The landmark decision was handed down Wednesday by Chief Judge Allen C. Winsor of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida, who openly acknowledged that the state’s underlying statute enabling such classifications for nonprofits is “novel — and perhaps unprecedented” for its provisions that allow designations without traditional due process safeguards. Despite flagging the law’s unusual structure, Winsor ruled that CAIR’s emergency petition for a restraining order failed to meet the high legal bar for proving the group faced imminent, actionable criminal punishment as a direct result of the label. The judge did, however, carve out explicit protections barring Florida state authorities from blocking CAIR’s access to legal representation, while state law enforcement officials formally committed that they would not pursue criminal prosecution against CAIR’s board members, full-time staff, or unaffiliated third parties that collaborate with the organization. In a public notice posted to its Florida domain CAIRFlorida.org on Friday, the group confirmed it had fully suspended operations, blaming Governor Ron DeSantis and state officials for applying what it called baseless, unconstitutional provisions of the new anti-terror statute against its work. The notice noted that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) are co-counsel on its ongoing federal lawsuit, which challenges the designation as a violation of First Amendment free speech rights and core due process protections. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) pushed back against criticism of the ruling in an official statement, framing Winsor’s decision as “the right call for the safety of Floridians” and pledging the agency would remain vigilant against perceived public safety threats to protect state residents. Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR’s national deputy director, described the shutdown as a devastating loss for the state’s Muslim community, noting that for the first time in more than 20 years, Florida’s Muslim population no longer has access to the state’s leading dedicated civil rights advocate to turn to for support in cases of mosque hate crimes, workplace discrimination, school anti-Muslim bullying, or other acts of religious bigotry. He went on to condemn the legal framework as a direct affront to the U.S. Constitution, arguing that no state governor should hold unilateral power to penalize a U.S. civil rights organization for its protected speech and force it to close its doors without formal due process. The legal battle traces back to July, when CAIR filed its initial federal suit against Governor DeSantis, after state officials grouped the civil rights organization alongside some of the Americas’ most violent transnational drug cartels on a formal list of designated domestic terrorist entities. The legal team warned at the time that the designation would trigger immediate, irreversible harm, forcing the group to shutter all programming and advocacy work statewide. Beyond CAIR, Florida’s new law has also formally listed two other loosely defined entities as terrorist organizations: the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational ideological movement with no documented formal operational presence or centralized U.S. headquarters, and antifa, the decentralized anti-fascist activist network that has no formal leadership, defined membership, or official geographic footprint. CAIR’s legal filings emphasized that the statute grants state officials sweeping authority to attach debilitating public stigma to registered nonprofits, then deploy a vast array of state regulatory, civil, and criminal tools to immediately silence and incapacitate the targeted group, its staff, its members, and a broad swath of affiliated third parties via extremely expansive, severe penalties. The controversial designation framework is codified in House Bill 1471, which the Florida state legislature passed in March 2022, DeSantis signed into law in April, and which went into full effect on July 1 of the same year. The move followed an earlier failed attempt by DeSantis to blacklist CAIR unilaterally via executive order in December of the prior year, a move that a separate federal judge blocked months before the new statute was passed. Shortly after HB 1471 took effect, CAIR filed its emergency motion for a preliminary injunction to halt enforcement of the new law against it. The text of HB 1471 explicitly states that any individual or entity providing material support to a state-designated terrorist group will face criminal liability, and includes a provision specifying that religious codes — which often receive heightened protections under the First Amendment — cannot be cited to override the statute’s requirements. CAIR and its civil rights partners have repeatedly argued that the law’s designation process contains no requirement for state officials to provide the targeted group with full written notice of all evidence, both inculpatory and exculpatory, that was used to justify the label, nor any requirement that the state present formal proof that the targeted organization has violated any existing state or federal criminal statute. CAIR’s leadership has confirmed it will immediately appeal Wednesday’s district court ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to contest the designation and seek to resume its Florida-based civil rights work.
Cair shuts down Florida office as judge declines reversal of terrorist designation
