Florida lawmakers approve giving DeSantis power to name 'terrorist' groups

Lawrence Mower, Tampa Bay Times on Mar 12, 2026

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State lawmakers approved giving Gov. Ron DeSantis broad new powers to name “terrorist” organizations, despite concerns from Democrats that he would abuse it to go after left-leaning college students and Islamic schools that receive public voucher money.

House lawmakers on Thursday passed HB 1471 along party lines, sending it to DeSantis’ desk.

DeSantis’ office originally proposed the legislation, which would give him and future governors powers typically reserved for the federal government.

Under the bill, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which reports to the governor, would have the ability to deem groups as foreign or domestic “terrorist organizations.”

Foreign terrorist groups would already have to be deemed as such by the federal government, such as al-Qaida, ISIS and various drug cartels.

Domestic terrorist groups would have to be engaging in “terrorist activity” as defined in state law and pose “an ongoing threat” to security. Neither the group nor its members would have to be charged with a crime to be deemed a terrorist group.

Lawmakers on Thursday also passed another bill making records around those decisions secret under state law. Groups could receive access to some of those records if they challenge their terrorist designation in court.

Rep. Hillary Cassel, the Dania Beach Republican who sponsored both bills, said she had no intention of blocking students’ right to protest or debate.

“This bill protects the Constitution, protects us from those that want to change us, protects us from those who want Western civilization to fall,” Cassel said Thursday.

But the bill specifically targets college students who “promote” terrorist organizations. Promotion includes “making a statement or taking an action that supports, approves, or encourages a terrorist organization’s extralegal violence.”

Such students would be immediately expelled and assessed out-of-state tuition fees.

The legislation also follows years of efforts by DeSantis to stamp out pro-Palestinian protesters on college campuses. In 2023, his hand-picked State University System chancellor accused two Florida chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine of knowingly providing material support for Hamas following the Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

In December, DeSantis also named the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, as a terrorist organization through an executive order. A federal judge temporarily blocked it on free speech grounds.

The bill also bars supporters of terrorist groups from receiving any state funding, including institutions receiving school choice scholarship money — a response to reports of Islamic schools receiving vouchers.

Free speech groups have widely condemned the legislation as unconstitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently held that it is unconstitutional for the government to target speech it disagrees with, even speech in support of terrorist groups, advocates say.

Rep. Wyman Duggan, a Jacksonville Republican, shut down questions on changes to the bill after 19 minutes on Thursday, enraging Democrats.

“This is political repression through and through,” said Rep. Angie Nixon, a Jacksonville Democrat. “This is disrespectful to us as lawmakers.”

Rep. Robin Bartleman, a Weston Democrat, questioned why House Republicans — who have been proud to challenge DeSantis’ use of executive power in the last year — were approving the bill.

“You all think that they’re not going to abuse their power in this process?” Bartleman said.

Rep. Alex Andrade, the Pensacola Republican who investigated the DeSantis administration’s diversion of $10 million from a Medicaid settlement to the Hope Florida Foundation last year, voted in support of the bill.

He said that he — “more than probably most in this room” — is “intimately aware of the potential for abuses of power.”

But he said the bill created a legal process for the state to prove its terrorism allegations. And records behind the state’s decision would come out in those court proceedings.

“They have to put up or shut up if they’re challenged by these groups,” Andrade said.

“And I, for one, still maintain that naive optimism about our system of checks and balances and about our right as Americans to confront our accusers in court.”

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