(03/04/2026) A federal judge in Tallahassee has blocked Governor Ron DeSantis’s executive order designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations a “terrorist organization,” ruling that it violates the First Amendment. The preliminary injunction, issued today by U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker, is effective immediately. No bond is required. No stay was granted pending appeal.

The 30-page ruling found that DeSantis’s December 8, 2025, executive order constitutes unconstitutional coercion — the governor used the power of his office to pressure third parties into cutting ties with CAIR, suppressing the organization’s protected speech. The court found CAIR is substantially likely to succeed on the merits.

“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,” Judge Walker wrote. He described DeSantis as “choosing to be a bully — in the familiar sense of the term — from his pulpit,” and concluded: “Political grandstanding does not an emergency make.”

The ruling lands one day after the Florida House voted 81-26 to pass HB 1471 — the very bill DeSantis called for when he issued the executive order. The Senate companion, SB 1632, is expected to be voted on this week. The session ends March 13. If the executive order that spawned these bills has been found unconstitutional, the question for the Senate is why it would codify that framework into law.

How the Coercion Worked

The court applied the Supreme Court’s framework from Bantam Books v. Sullivan and NRA v. Vullo: a government official “cannot do indirectly what he is barred from doing directly” — he cannot coerce private parties to suppress disfavored speech on his behalf.

The executive order designates CAIR by name and threatens anyone who provides “material support or resources” with losing access to any contract, employment, funds, or benefit from state agencies, regulated entities, counties, or municipalities. A Florida production company withdrew from an agreement to produce a civil rights podcast with CAIR, explicitly citing the order. Attorney General James Uthmeier amplified the threat on social media, warning Coral Springs that “state and local resources cannot be used by any organization affiliated with CAIR” and telling entities it “would be wise to dissociate from CAIR.” The judge called Uthmeier “Defendant’s favorite familiar.”

The chilling effect reached into Florida’s Muslim community itself. According to court filings, the South Florida Muslim Federation removed its association with CAIR-Florida after the executive order, even while acknowledging it had “never observed any conduct on the part of CAIR-FL that would remotely resemble terrorism.”

The Governor Is Not the President

DeSantis’s legal team argued the executive order deserved deference, pointing to the Supreme Court’s Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project decision. Judge Walker rejected this. The federal designation process includes procedural safeguards — legislative involvement, judicial review, substantive criteria — that are entirely absent here. DeSantis “unilaterally declared via executive order that Plaintiff is a terrorist organization, with no substantive explanation of his authority to do so, no legislative involvement, and no mechanism for judicial review.”

As for claiming presidential-level deference: “While he gave it the good ol’ college try, Defendant is not the president.” The court also noted that Holder explicitly stated Congress could not extend material support prohibitions to domestic organizations — which is precisely what HB 1471 and SB 1632 would do.

‘Bigotry No Sanction’

Judge Walker closed by noting that Muslims make up less than 1% of Florida’s population, making them “an especially easy target.” He added: “It also pains this Court to have to point out that not all Muslims are terrorists.” He quoted George Washington’s 1790 letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, praising the American government for giving “to bigotry no sanction.”

The SPLC, CAIR Legal Defense Fund, MLFA, and Akeel & Valentine welcomed the ruling. “This executive order was never about public safety — it was about targeting a Muslim organization for its speech and its advocacy,” said SPLC deputy legal director Scott McCoy. DeSantis’s office did not respond to requests for comment from the New York Times or the Associated Press.

A federal court has now found that the executive order at the root of this entire legislative campaign violates the Constitution. DeSantis issued the order on December 8 and called on lawmakers to codify it. Cassel withdrew her original bill and filed HB 1471 on January 9. Grall filed SB 1632, which was pulled from its final committee after barely surviving a contentious hearing. The question for the Florida Senate is whether Judge Walker’s ruling will give at least a few senators the reason they need to vote no.