HB 1471<\/a>, which was originally filed by state Rep. Hillary Cassel (R-Hollywood) earlier this year. 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
[RELATED: DeSantis discusses Florida airport under new \u2018Trump Highway\u2019 law]<\/p>\n
However, a major component of the law 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\u2019s terrorist activity is an ongoing threat to the security of Florida or 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 kidnappingFTOThe 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
[RELATED: Are you a \u2018gang member?\u2019 This new Florida bill changes what it means]<\/p>\n
Then, the Cabinet will be responsible for either approving or rejecting the designation.<\/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
The law was ultimately signed by DeSantis early last month, though it doesn\u2019t formally take effect until July 1.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, you can find a full list of new laws passed this year by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\nBreaking 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 Of the dozens of new Florida laws passed so far this year, one stands out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,139,99,412,232],"class_list":["post-261792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-orlando","tag-politics","tag-ron-desantis","tag-tallahassee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261792","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=261792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261792\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}