Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 1471 on Monday, expanding the state's counterterrorism powers and prohibiting courts from enforcing Sharia law or other foreign religious laws that conflict with the U.S. Constitution. The legislation allows officials to designate terrorist groups and imposes penalties on students promoting violence. The measure takes effect on July 1.
Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed the bill during a ceremony, stating on X, “To uphold the rule of law, our state must operate under one legal system, the Constitution must remain the law of the land, and we must defend our institutions from those who would harm us—especially terrorist organizations that seek to infiltrate and subvert our education system.” He added in another post, “We have a responsibility to defend and reinvigorate Western Civilization, and that means protecting against creeping sharia in all its forms.” The law empowers a top official at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to designate groups as domestic or foreign terrorist organizations, with approval from the governor and cabinet, according to the Associated Press. It also blocks foreign judgments and contracts bypassing constitutional protections, mandates expulsion for students promoting terrorist violence, and permits funding cuts to non-compliant state institutions. HB 1471 passed the state legislature mostly along party lines. The bill comes amid a legal dispute where a U.S. District Judge blocked DeSantis's earlier designation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a terrorist group on March 5. CAIR's Florida chapter called the new law “draconian” and “blatantly unconstitutional,” with Interim Executive Director Hiba Rahim saying, “By empowering the Governor’s cabinet with new powers to designate his political opponents as terrorists without due process using secret evidence, these bills flout the basic notions of justice that all Americans expect from their government.” Florida joins at least 13 other states with similar anti-Sharia measures since 2010, per a University of California, Berkeley analysis.
