MJF Primer on FL DTO Regime
On July 1, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that he had received recommendations to designate organizations under the state's new Domestic Terrorist Organization (DTO) framework. Florida announced its intent to designate three organizations as Domestic Terrorist Organizations (DTOs)—CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Antifa—while also recognizing more than 90 federally designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs), including several major cartels, bringing the total number of recognized organizations to more than 93 in Florida. This marks the first implementation of Florida's new designation regime and represents a significant escalation in the state's effort to expand terrorism authorities.
Of deep concern is Florida’s targeting of CAIR, which carries profound consequences for Muslim communities in Florida and across the country. Persecuting the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights organization sends a dangerous message that Muslim advocacy itself is suspect. This designation threatens CAIR’s ability, and by extension CAIR Florida, to provide essential legal representation, advocacy, and community support to Floridians. This targeting also affects the broader network of Muslim advocacy and membership-based organizations nationwide who have members or partners operating in Florida. Furthermore, at a time of escalating political violence toward Muslim communities, stripping Florida Muslims in the South of access to national advocates would deny countless individuals and families critical institutional support. This should alarm any national advocacy and membership-based group that works to defend the rights of targeted community members. If states can create new designation regimes for the purpose of preventing national and local advocacy organizations from representing or supporting particular communities, it establishes a dangerous precedent. Such a framework would threaten the ability of national advocacy and membership-based organizations across issue areas to fulfill their missions.
The primer examines what these developments mean in practice, including:
How Florida's DTO regime expands state authority to designate organizations and a far more expansive material support for terrorism apparatus.
A comparison of Florida's DTO framework with existing federal terrorism laws.
An analysis of the legal consequences for nonprofit organizations, attorneys, donors, students, and community institutions.
How the state designation regime functions as a tool of structural Islamophobia, drawing on policymakers' rhetoric and its potential to push Muslim communities out of Florida.
Why CAIR has been targeted under the new framework and the broader political context of successful Florida based movements.
An overview of the federal lawsuit challenging HB 1471 and HB 1473 on First and Fourteenth Amendment grounds.
The broader implications of Florida's approach for Muslim communities, philanthropy, and social movements nationwide.
The primer concludes with a set of recommendations for civil society, funders, and movement partners.
