Florida Clears Path to Put CAIR and Muslim Brotherhood on State Terrorist List

Florida has finalised the procedure that could allow the state to designate the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organisations.

Governor Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet approved the implementing rule on September 11.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement rule also took effect that day, establishing procedures for domestic and foreign terrorist-organisation designations under the state’s new laws.

The development does not mean CAIR or the Muslim Brotherhood has now been formally designated under the new system.

DeSantis previously announced that he had received recommendations from FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass to designate CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood and Antifa. The new rule clears a procedural obstacle that had prevented those designations from proceeding.

Under Florida law, a proposed designation must be notified to the organisation before the Governor and Cabinet can approve or reject it.

Following approval, the designation must be published in the Florida Administrative Register. A designated organisation or any of its members then has 30 days to challenge the decision in Leon County circuit court.

The consequences can extend beyond the organisation itself.

Florida’s new regime restricts state and local government support for designated organisations and contains provisions affecting public education and other relationships with designated groups.

The expected move against CAIR is already being challenged in federal court.

CAIR and CAIR-Florida filed suit in July arguing that the new designation regime violates the First Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment’s due-process protections. Florida officials subsequently agreed not to designate CAIR before implementing regulations were finalised.

That litigation remains ongoing.

A separate legal challenge concerns DeSantis’s earlier 2025 executive order labelling CAIR a terrorist organisation.

In March, a federal district court preliminarily blocked enforcement of that order, finding CAIR was likely to succeed on its First Amendment claim. Florida appealed.

CAIR describes itself as a Muslim civil-rights organisation and denies terrorist links. It has not been federally designated as a terrorist organisation.

The Muslim Brotherhood is a transnational Islamist movement with organisations and networks operating across multiple countries.

Florida has now established the machinery through which it could place both organisations on its own terrorist list.

Whether it can constitutionally apply that machinery to CAIR is already before the courts.

Sources

• WUSF – Florida Cabinet approves terrorist designation process
• Florida Department of State – Rule 11RER26-8
• ACLU – CAIR challenge to Florida designation regime