TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a controversial law that empowers state officials to label organizations as domestic or foreign terrorist groups. This legislation, described by critics as a threat to free speech, permits designated officials at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to make such classifications, which must then be approved by the governor and members of the state Cabinet.
The newly enacted law includes provisions for dissolving any organization deemed a terrorist group, stripping it of state funding, and expelling students at state universities for supporting these entities. Universities would also be required to report visa-holding expelled students to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
During a news conference in Tampa, DeSantis affirmed, “This will help the state of Florida protect you. It’ll help us protect your tax dollars and uphold what should be happening in the United States of America, particularly in the free state of Florida.”
However, PEN America, a free speech advocacy group, has voiced concern over the vague criteria potentially restricting educational programs perceived as promoting terrorism. William Johnson, the organization’s Florida director, remarked, “The implications are fraught. The new law could chill education at every level.”
Last December, the governor had already designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, though a federal judge recently issued a temporary block against the enforcement of that executive order.
