warning<\/a> that \u201cjudicial 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.\u201d<\/p>\nHB 1471, passed mostly along party lines, would create a more established process for identifying and labeling \u201cdomestic terrorist organizations,\u201d said Sen. Erin Grall, a Vero Beach Republican.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are very significant decisions,\u201d Grall said. \u201cBut they deserve not to be the topic, like I have said, of a press conference or a press release, but of a process, a deliberative process of consideration of evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Under the bill, the governor\u2019s chosen head of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement could identify a domestic terrorist organization if it is engaging in \u201cterrorist activity\u201d under state law. State law says the activity must include \u201ca violent act or an act dangerous to human life\u201d or computer hacking crimes.<\/p>\n
Neither the organization, nor its members, would have to be charged with a crime before being deemed as a \u201cterrorist\u201d group.<\/p>\n
The department would issue written findings and a recommendation to the governor and Cabinet, which would then have to vote on the designation.<\/p>\n
Once labeled as a terrorist organization, the group would be allowed to challenge the decision in court.<\/p>\n
But college and university students who \u201cpromote\u201d the organization would be immediately expelled and assessed out-of-state tuition fees.<\/p>\n
And groups and their supporters would be barred from receiving any state funding. That includes institutions receiving school choice scholarship money \u2014 a response to reports of Islamic schools receiving vouchers.<\/p>\n
The legislation has prompted fierce criticism that it would violate Floridians\u2019 right to free speech. Earlier versions did not define what kind of \u201csupport\u201d would be prohibited. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that government can\u2019t stop free expression.<\/p>\n
The bill was amended to clarify that student \u201csupport\u201d would have to include threats of violence, financial or material support, \u201csubstantial disorder\u201d or material distortion of \u201cthe orderly learning environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Some senators said they feared the powers would be used against political opponents.<\/p>\n
Sen. Ileana Garcia, a Miami Republican, noted that Biden administration officials called Jan. 6 rioters domestic terrorists. She was one of two Republicans who voted against the bill.<\/p>\n
Others noted that the government once considered the NAACP and Martin Luther King to be threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that this bill is very scary for many Floridians,\u201d said Sen. Carlos Guillermo Smith, an Orlando Democrat.<\/p>\n
A companion bill passed Thursday, HB 1473, would make portions of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement\u2019s determinations secret under state law if they include information \u201ccritical to state or national security.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is an extraordinary amount of authority to place in government without allowing the public to determine how to understand how those determinations are being made,\u201d said Senate Minority Leader Lori Berman, a Boca Raton Democrat.<\/p>\n
Grall said the records could be viewed by the organization or its attorneys in any court challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should be concerned about revealing information critical to state or national security without the review of a court,\u201d Grall said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A view of the Florida Capitol Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com TALLAHASSEE The Florida Senate approved a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85856,28,5239,30,29,85854,66715,85855],"class_list":["post-181869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-college-expulsions","tag-florida","tag-florida-bill","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-governor-power","tag-hb-1471","tag-terrorist-designation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MIA_31_Florida_Legislation_Session_2026_MJO.JPG\" "\\"A")
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