A federal judge on Wednesday blocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order to classify a prominent Muslim civil rights group as a terrorist organization, calling the Republican’s action “a political statement at the expense of others’ constitutional rights.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction against the governor’s actions related to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR.
DeSantis issued an executive order on Dec. 8 calling CAIR a “terrorist organization,” which prevented the organization from “receiving any contract, employment, funds or other benefit or privilege.”
“The First Amendment bars the Governor from continuing the troubling trend of using an executive office to make a political statement at the expense of others’ constitutional rights,” Walker wrote.
“The Governor’s decree coerces third parties, under threats of losing government benefits to disassociate from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (‘CAIR’), thereby closing avenues of expression and suppressing CAIR’s protected speech.”
The judge cited President George Washington’s famed 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Rhode Island as the bedrock for American safeguards of religious minorities.
“The Constitution protects Plaintiff’s speech just as it protects any other organization’s lawful speech from suppression by governmental coercion of third parties,” the judge wrote.
“And the Defendant has violated the Plaintiff’s rights by targeting it in his EO and threatening any who wish to provide material support or resources to Plaintiff with government consequences,” he wrote.
The governor’s communications director said in a statement Thursday that: “Judicial ethics bars a federal district judge from continuing the troubling trend of using his judicial office to make a political statement at the expense of a party before him.”
President Barack Obama nominated Walker to the federal bench in early 2012. The Senate confirmed him 94-0.
“On behalf of the entire CAIR network, we thank our co-counsel, our partners, and our community for standing with us as we confronted and defeated Ron DeSantis’ attack on our civil rights organization,” CAIR executive director Nihad Awad said in a statement.
“Amid widespread attempts by politicians to undermine our democracy, including attacks on free speech, religious freedom, immigrant rights, and due process, this federal court ruling serves as a reminder that the Constitution still matters.”
