If you want to see what freedom looks like in Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 \u201cFree State of Florida,\u201d look at two remarkable events last week.<\/p>\n
First, a federal judge in Florida ruled March 4 that DeSantis violated the U.S. Constitution <\/a>by unilaterally designating the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a foreign terrorist organization. U.S. District Judge Mark Walker wrote that the First Amendment bars the governor from continuing \u201cthe troubling trend of using an executive office to make a political statement at the expense of others\u2019 constitutional rights.\u201d<\/p>\n DeSantis issued an executive order<\/a> in December designating CAIR, one of the nation\u2019s largest Muslim advocacy and civil rights groups, as a terrorist organization, barring CAIR and \u201cany person\u201d who provided support or resources to CAIR from receiving any state contract, employment funds or other benefits. One week later, CAIR filed a lawsuit<\/a> against DeSantis, arguing that the governor had usurped his authority and penalized the group in violation of its constitutionally protected free speech rights.<\/p>\n Walker granted the preliminary injunction sought by CAIR, halting enforcement of the governor\u2019s order while the lawsuit moves forward.<\/p>\n Securing an injunction against the government is no small thing. Courts give wide deference to the executive branch, and judges don\u2019t hand out injunctions without believing that a plaintiff will likely prevail at trial.<\/p>\n Still, everyone should have seen the court\u2019s rebuke coming. As the judge wrote, DeSantis violated even a governor\u2019s own expansive power, declaring CAIR a terrorist group \u201cwith no substantive explanation of his authority to do so, no legislative involvement and no mechanism for judicial review.\u201d Walker noted that CAIR \u201ccontinues to suffer\u201d its public standing from DeSantis\u2019 use of the bully pulpit,\u201d noting \u2014 in an extraordinary footnote \u2014 that the governor \u201cis choosing to be a bully.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Supreme Court has drawn a line between permissible persuasion and unconstitutionalcoercion,\u201d the judge wrote. DeSantis \u201chas crossed that line.\u201d<\/p>\n Nobody should have been surprised by the governor\u2019s behavior. DeSantis did a similar thing in 2022, removing then-Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren from office after the Democratic prosecutor voiced policy disagreements with the governor. In that case, another federal judge found that DeSantis had ginned the facts, leveling \u201cfalse\u201d allegations as a \u201cpretext\u201d to violate Warren\u2019s free speech rights. A three-judge federal appeals panel later upheld that finding, though the federal courts dragged their feet and effectively denied Warren any recourse.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce again,\u201d Judge Walker wrote last week in siding with CAIR, \u201cFlorida chooses political posturing over the First Amendment.\u201d Dismissing the governor\u2019s attacks as \u201cpolitical grandstanding,\u201d Walker added: \u201cIt should be lost on no one that (DeSantis\u2019 order) targets one of America\u2019s largest Muslim civil rights organizations for indirect suppression of speech.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs we all know,\u201d the ruling continued, \u201cit is easy for those in power to target minority groups with little pushback.\u201d In another remarkable footnote, the judge went further: \u201cIt also pains this Court to have to point out that not all Muslims are terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n The judge\u2019s ruling and the stark language directed at DeSantis should have paused Florida\u2019s campaign against protected speech. But in a second remarkable move last week, the Republican-led Legislature moved to upend the court\u2019s decision by giving DeSantis the very censorship authority the judge denied.<\/p>\n