A leading Muslim civil rights group in the US has sued Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, over his order designating it and another organization as a “foreign terrorist organization”, saying the directive was unconstitutional.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as Cair, has more than 20 chapters across the United States and its work involves legal actions, advocacy and education outreach.
The lawsuit was filed late Monday by the Cair-Foundation and Cair-Florida, its affiliate in the state. The suit asked a federal judge in Tallahassee to declare DeSantis’s order unlawful and unconstitutional and prevent it from being enforced.
“He has usurped the exclusive authority of the federal government to identify and designate terrorist organizations by baselessly declaring Cair a terrorist organization,” the lawsuit says.
Cair said in the lawsuit that it was targeted by DeSantis for defending the free speech rights of people in cases in which state officials and officials elsewhere had tried to punish or silence those who had expressed support for Palestinian human rights.
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