(1/12/2026) On January 9, 2026, two entries appeared in the Florida House legislative record under Rep. Hillary Cassel’s name.

The first: House Bill 119, the “No Shari’a Act” — the bill she had filed on the anniversary of October 7, framed as an act of solidarity with Israel, and defended for three months while critics called it hypocritical and unnecessary — was “withdrawn prior to introduction.” After all the press conferences, the podcast appearances where she called the upcoming hearings “fun,” and the national attention, Cassel quietly pulled the plug on her signature bill.

The second: House Bill 1471, titled “Systems of Law and Terrorist Organizations,” was filed. Same sponsor. Same day.

HB 1471 is not a revision of the “No Shari’a Act.” It is a replacement — and it is far more dangerous.

The original bill, HB 119, did one thing: it banned Florida courts and agencies from basing decisions on Shari’a law or foreign legal codes. Critics pointed out that no Florida court had ever applied Shari’a law and that the bill was a solution in search of a problem — one that singled out Islam while ignoring Jewish Halakha, Catholic canon law, and every other religious legal tradition.

HB 1471 absorbs that anti-Shari’a provision — the bill explicitly names Shari’a law in its definition of “religious law” — and then builds an entirely new framework around it. The bill empowers the head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, as Chief of Domestic Security, to designate organizations as domestic or foreign terrorist groups. Once designated, those organizations would be cut off from all state contracts, funds, and benefits. Any person who knowingly provides material support to a designated group would face criminal prosecution. Any student at a public university found to have “promoted” a designated organization could be immediately expelled, stripped of scholarships and financial aid, and charged out-of-state tuition rates.

Private schools participating in the state’s voucher program — the same program that Florida Republicans had already tried to use against Islamic schools — would be prohibited from receiving state scholarship funds if they are owned by, operated by, or provide material support to a designated group.

And then there is HB 1473, filed the same day. This companion bill creates a public records exemption for “certain information” related to the designation process — meaning the evidence used to brand an organization a domestic terrorist group could be shielded from public scrutiny.

Together, the two bills create a system in which the state can label an organization a terrorist group, cut off its funding, prosecute its supporters, expel students who advocate for it, strip voucher eligibility from schools associated with it — and keep the basis for the designation secret.

The timing is not coincidental. Exactly one month before Cassel filed HB 1471, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as “foreign terrorist organizations” — a designation the federal government has not made. That same day, December 8, DeSantis posted on X: “Members of the FL Legislature are crafting legislation to stop the creep of sharia law, and I hope that they codify these protections for Floridians against CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood in their legislation.” At a press conference, he called the executive order “kind of the beginning” and predicted “statutory codification.”

Cassel delivered. She did not merely codify the executive order — she expanded it. DeSantis’s order targeted two organizations by name. HB 1471 creates a permanent mechanism for the state to designate any organization, domestic or foreign, as a terrorist group — with consequences that reach into schools, universities, state contracts, and individual criminal liability.

The bill has 20 co-sponsors and a Senate companion, SB 1632, filed by Sen. Erin Grall of Vero Beach. The 2026 legislative session opened four days after the bills were filed, on January 13.

HB 119 was a message bill — a political statement timed to the anniversary of October 7 and wrapped in the language of solidarity with Israel. It drew attention, generated headlines, and served its purpose. But it was never going to build a legal machine.

HB 1471 is that machine. And it was waiting the moment the session began.