Florida allows state designation of domestic terrorist organizations News
Office of the Governor of Florida, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Florida allows state designation of domestic terrorist organizations

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law Monday HB 1471, which grants the state’s chief of domestic security authority to designate domestic terrorist organizations.

The chief may provide such a designation if they determine an entity operating in the state is engaged in terrorist activity, and the governor and cabinet approve the determination. The law provides multiple consequences for such organizations and grants the Florida secretary of state power to dissolve corporations with a domestic terrorist label.

The law also creates several new felonies for assisting such organizations and blocks private schools from receiving state funding if they allow students to promote them.

DeSantis hailed the bill as a defense against “terrorist organizations that seek to infiltrate and subvert our education system” and paves a new pathway for the governor to designate domestic terrorist organizations. DeSantis had previously attempted to issue an executive order designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Brotherhood as domestic terrorist organizations. However, a federal court enjoined enforcement of the order on First Amendment grounds.

CAIR, a civil rights organization for Muslim Americans, condemned the bill as a “deeply-flawed framework” that “can attack any organization that dares to dissent,” raising concerns that the law will chill free speech. The organization held a press conference on Tuesday responding to the bills passage into law.

HB 1471 was accompanied by HB 1473, which exempts from public disclosure certain documentation related to a domestic terrorist organization determination. Information in the chief of domestic security’s report to the governor and cabinet may be excluded from public records if it “would reveal information critical to state or national security.”

The law mirrors similar recent action on the federal level. In 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order labeling Antifa a domestic terrorist organization, despite lacking express statutory authority to do so.

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