- July 6, 2026
The Council on American-Islamic Relations filed a federal lawsuit late Wednesday, hours after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his intent to use a new law to label the organization and various other groups as a “domestic terrorist organizations.”
The suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee contends DeSantis is violating the First Amendment and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The lawsuit states CAIR and CAIR-Florida would face “irreparable harm” in their nonprofit advocacy in the state and the statement denies CAIR engages in terrorist activity.
The suit was filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center, American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Florida, Akeel & Valentine, PLC, and Bondurant Mixson & Ellmore LLP.
In addition to DeSantis, named defendants include the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Executive Director Mark Glass, members of the Cabinet and the 20 district state attorneys.
Glass in his role as Florida’s chief of domestic security is directed under the new law to make recommendations on naming groups as terrorist organizations.
DeSantis and the Cabinet --- Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson --- have to sign off on the recommendations that DeSantis announced his support for last Wednesday.
In addition to CAIR, the designations are recommended for the Muslim Brotherhood and the anti-fascism movement known as antifa.
DeSantis’ recommendation also includes more than 90 foreign organizations already designated as foreign terrorist organizations by the U.S. government, including the Venezuelan crime syndicate Tren de Aragua, the Sinaloa, Mexico-based drug trafficking Cartel de Sinaloa, the Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico-based Cartel del Golfo, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran.
The legislation, signed by DeSantis on April 6, was crafted to back up an executive order DeSantis issued in December that placed the terrorism label on the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood.
In March, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction against the executive order, writing that it violated CAIR’s rights by targeting and threatening those providing the organization with material support.
