Bill to Designate Domestic Terrorist Organizations Advances in Florida House

A proposal to empower the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) to designate domestic or foreign terrorist organizations if the group meet specified criteria advanced through its second committee in the Florida House on Tuesday.

The proposal (HB 1471), sponsored by former Democrat turned Republican Rep. Hillary Cassel from Dania Beach, says that the terrorism label could be applied if the state’s chief of domestic security finds that the group “is engaging in terrorist activities that either involve illegal acts dangerous to human life, or that are intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”

The head of the FDLE acts as chief of domestic security.

That designation would require the approval by a majority of the state Cabinet to become effective.

“The bill targets conduct, not belief, and protects free speech, religious liberty, and due process,” Cassel told the House Education & Employment Committee.

One provision says that after a student of a state institution of higher learning has been determined to have promoted a designated foreign terrorist organization or domestic terrorist organization, such student may be immediately expelled from the institution. That portion of the proposal concerned several public speakers.

“It’s an attack on our First Amendment rights,” said Amanda Langworthy with Voices of Florida. “The way this bill is worded, it can be used to censor dissenting voices, especially students whose future in education will be at risk. This creates a chilling effect and silences voices before they even get a chance to speak.”

Sarah Parker, executive director of Voices of Florida, followed up by saying that the bill would “disproportionally silence BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and People of Color] people.”

“You are not going to see the Proud Boys make that list,” she added.

Activist Matthew Grocholske said that part of the bill illustrates how the Florida Legislature “is demonizing our Muslim community to the extreme.” 

“Students will be attacked, especially our Muslim students and our pro-Palestinian students and activists in the state,” he said.

Sharia?

The bill includes a provision that would ban schools with affiliations to designated foreign or domestic terrorist organizations from receiving school voucher funds.

John Labriola with the Christian Family Coalition Florida applauded that measure. 

“A number of schools that are Sharia or promoting Islamic supremacy are receiving funds from Florida’s school voucher scholarship program,” he said. “And this bill should end that.”

Another provision bans Florida courts from enforcing any part of Sharia law. That’s a set of principles that governs the moral and religious lives of Muslims, ranging from dietary laws to marriage, divorce, inheritance, the rights of women, and punishment for criminal offenses.

Rep. Tiffany Esposito, R-Fort Myers, said the section of the bill banning Sharia Law was why she strongly supported the measure.

“Under Sharia Law, as a woman, I would not sit here today,” she said. “I would  not be educated. I would not be employed, and I would lose so much of my freedom.”

Democratic Rep. Jervontae Edmonds said he represents the largest number of Jewish people who live in Palm Beach County, and supported elimination of Sharia Law. However, he questioned the need for the bill overall.

“The more legislation I see this session, I’m wondering, what  are we afraid of?” he asked rhetorically.

The measure comes two months after Gov. Ron DeSantis designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Florida as a “terrorist organization.” The group has filed a lawsuit calling that executive order unconstitutional.

Rep. Susan Valdés, R-Tampa, praised Cassel’s bill as shifting the power to declare a terrorist organization from just the governor to a majority vote of the state Cabinet, three independently elected government executives. “This ensures that no sitting individual can unilaterally label a group of terrorists without the concurrence of other independently elected statewide officials.”

Cassel stressed that her bill would not stifle free speech.

“Florida can protect free expression while still drawing a bright line when campus disruption and promotion of terrorists organizations cross into that terrorist advocacy,” she said.

The bill passed the committee, 16-4, with Democrats Edmonds and Kim Daniels joining the majority of Republicans in approving the measure. It now moves to its third and final committee before it could reach the House floor. A companion bill (SB 1632) sponsored by Sen. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, has two more committee stops before going to the full Senate for consideration.