US federal judge blocks Florida governor from designating Muslim group as terror organization

​​​​​ISTANBUL

A federal court in the US state of Florida has temporarily blocked Gov. Ron DeSantis from enforcing an executive order that designated the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as a terror organization, ruling that the move was an unconstitutional violation of free speech, according to court documents.

The court said Wednesday that DeSantis had no authority to unilaterally label one of the country's largest Muslim civil rights groups a terror organization outside of an emergency situation.

DeSantis' order had threatened to deny government contracts, funding and benefits to anyone associated with CAIR, a move the court said amounted to coercing third parties into cutting ties with the group in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Judge Mark Walker granted CAIR a preliminary injunction, immediately barring DeSantis and his administration from enforcing the order against the group, describing it as "political posturing over the First Amendment."

CAIR, founded in 1994 and headquartered in Washington, DC, is the largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization in the US. Its Florida chapter sued DeSantis after he issued the order, calling it unlawful and an escalating attack on civil rights advocacy in the state.

"A sitting governor tried to use the power of his office to smear America's largest Muslim civil rights organization and punish anyone who supported it," CAIR told Anadolu in a statement, welcoming the ruling as "an important victory for the Constitution."