HB 1471<\/a> \u2014 was originally filed by state Rep. Hillary Cassel (R-Hollywood) earlier this year, and it seeks to make a variety of changes to state law regarding terrorist organizations.<\/p>\nMany of those revisions are as follows:<\/p>\n
Religious Laws: Courts and tribunals are prohibited from enforcing religious or foreign laws against someone if such application would violate his\/her constitutional rights<\/p>\n
Private Schools: Prohibits private schools participating in state scholarship programs from being owned or funded by terrorist groups, terrorist supporters, or criminal gangs<\/p>\n
State Universities: Prevents institutions in the Florida College System from using state funds to support programs that advocate for terrorist organizations<\/p>\n
Visa Students: Public colleges must report information about the current status of students who are attending on a visa if they promote terrorist organizations<\/p>\n
Student Expulsions: If a student promotes a terrorist organization while enrolled at a public university, the student must be immediately expelled and assessed an out-of-state fee<\/p>\n
[BELOW: Are you a \u2018gang member?\u2019 This new Florida bill changes what it means]<\/p>\n
However, a major component of the bill is a new rule that allows the FDLE executive director \u2014 a role appointed by the governor \u2014 to designate certain groups as terrorist organizations.<\/p>\n
To do so, the FDLE director must find the following criteria:<\/p>\n
Domestic (DTO) or Foreign (FTO)?CriteriaDTOThe organization is based in or operates in the U.S.DTOThe organization is engaging in activities that involve illegal acts to intimidate\/coerce a civilian population, influence the policy of a government by intimidation\/coercion, or affect the conduct of government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnappingDTOThe organization\u2019s terrorist activity is an ongoing threat to the security of Florida or the U.S.FTOThe organization is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. Secretary of State pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality ActFTOThe organization\u2019s terrorist activity is an ongoing threat to the security of Florida or the U.S.<\/p>\n
At least seven days before designating a group as a terrorist organization, the FDLE director must provide written notice to the Cabinet, along with written findings behind the decision.<\/p>\n
Then, the Cabinet will be responsible for either approving or rejecting the designation.<\/p>\n
[BELOW: New laws signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis last year]<\/p>\n
If a group is properly dubbed a terrorist organization, the following consequences would also apply:<\/p>\n
State agencies may not expend funds or levy ad valorem taxes to support such an organization or its members<\/p>\n
Criminal penalties imposed against such organization may be enhanced<\/p>\n
The following terrorist-related crimes include conduct involving a domestic terrorist group as designated by the FDLE head:<\/p>\n
Now that the bill has been approved by lawmakers, it\u2019s heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis\u2019 desk for his final signature.<\/p>\n
If he passes it into law, the bill is slated to take effect on July 1.<\/p>\n
Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n
Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 A new proposal has passed the Florida legislature that gives the state the power to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,100,29,99,232],"class_list":["post-193279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-legislature","tag-florida-news","tag-politics","tag-tallahassee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193279","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=193279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}