ATLANTA—The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University today filed an amicus brief on behalf of itself and the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) supporting the Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) in its challenge to Florida’s “domestic terrorist organization” law, which gives state officials sweeping power to designate nonprofit groups as domestic terrorist organizations based on unproven allegations.
Florida has used the new law to target CAIR, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, and its Florida chapter.
“Florida’s law violates the First Amendment because it lets a handful of state officials shut down organizations they don’t like based on unproven allegations,” said Anna Diakun, senior staff attorney at the Knight First Amendment Institute. “Unless the court intervenes, Florida’s law will pave the way for copycat campaigns of political retribution. Today, Florida is targeting CAIR, but tomorrow, another state could use the same powers against any other organization they dislike, whether it’s the NRA or PETA or Greenpeace. The First Amendment protects organizations across the political spectrum from this kind of government retaliation.”
Under the law, knowingly providing “material support” to a designated group is a felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison. The ban extends to a broad range of activities, including providing services to the organization, exposing people to criminal prosecution for engaging in constitutionally protected speech and association and making it effectively impossible for designated groups to operate in the state.
On September 29, Florida officials designated CAIR and CAIR-Florida as domestic terrorist organizations under the recently enacted law, HB 1471. A federal district court declined to pause the designations while their lawsuit moves forward. On November 5, when the designations took effect, CAIR-Florida was forced to shut down. Its website went dark except for a notice explaining that it had halted its work in Florida because of the state’s enforcement of the law. The groups are now asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for immediate relief. The Knight Institute and FIRE’s brief urges the court to step in, arguing that every hour the designations remain in effect, CAIR, CAIR-Florida, and the many Floridians who wish to engage with them suffer irreparable damage to their First Amendment rights.
The amicus brief draws parallels to efforts by Southern states in the 1950s and 1960s to impede the NAACP as it fought segregation. States used neutral laws in retaliatory ways to go after the organization’s activities, to force it to disclose its membership lists, and, in some cases, to shut it down altogether. In Alabama, the NAACP was barred from operating for eight years before the Supreme Court ultimately vindicated its rights. The brief warns that Florida’s law could enable similar campaigns of retaliation against advocacy organizations of every stripe, causing lasting damage even if the courts eventually strike down the restrictions.
This law is Florida’s second attempt to retaliate against CAIR. In December 2025, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued Executive Order 25-244, labeling CAIR a “terrorist organization” and directing state agencies to cut off CAIR—and anyone who supports it—from government contracts, jobs, funding, and other benefits. In March, a federal district court blocked the order, ruling that it violates the First Amendment by pressuring others to cut ties with CAIR. Gov. DeSantis has appealed that ruling to the Eleventh Circuit, where the Knight Institute has also filed an amicus brief supporting CAIR.
Read today’s brief here.
Read more about the case here.
Lawyers on the case include Anna Diakun, Xiangnong (George) Wang, Alex Abdo, and Jameel Jaffer of the Knight First Amendment Institute.
For more information, contact: [email protected].