A conservative legal coalition is urging an appeals court to let Gov. Ron DeSantis bar the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) from receiving Florida contracts, funding and benefits.
Their argument: Florida has the power to refuse public support for organizations it says have ties to terrorism.
In an amicus brief, Holtzman Vogel lawyers Mark Pinkert and Jason Torchinsky advised the court to rule in favor of DeSantis’ appeal of a March 4 injunction, which blocked his December executive order denying CAIR state or local contracts, employment or funding and pressuring third parties to do the same.
Pinkert and Torchinsky filed the brief on behalf of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Middle East Forum and Network Contagion Research Institute.
“CAIR is not the benevolent civil rights organization that it purports to be or that the district court believed it to be,” the brief argued, contending that Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood created CAIR to support their work in the United States.
The brief, dated Monday, cites court records from the Holy Land Foundation terrorism-financing case, FBI-wiretapped meeting materials, prior civil and criminal cases, and outside research to argue that DeSantis’ order was supported by substantial evidence.
CAIR denies those allegations and, notably, has not been federally designated as a terrorist organization — though Republican U.S. Rep. Randy Fine, whom CAIR has called on to resign, has tried to change that.
The brief’s strongest evidence comes from the Holy Land Foundation case, where a 2009 ruling said the government produced “ample evidence” of associations among CAIR, the Holy Land Foundation, Islamic Association of Palestine, Hamas and other groups.
In 1993, the FBI recorded a meeting at which CAIR co-founders Nihad Awad and Omar Ahmad met with Hamas-support figures and participants discussed creating a new organization that would not appear tied to Hamas.
The brief also cites a 1994 Palestine Committee agenda listing CAIR among groups whose work was being overseen.
Those records support the brief’s assertion that CAIR emerged from a Hamas- and Muslim Brotherhood-linked network. They fall short, however, of proving CAIR itself committed a crime or was legally created by Hamas.
But Pinkert and Torchinsky wrote that “evidence, alone, justifies the Governor’s Executive order … which merely prevents state agencies from contracting with or directing funds to CAIR.”
That isn’t accurate. The order also designates CAIR as a terrorist organization, which the organization cited as its primary contention when it filed a federal lawsuit challenging the order’s constitutionality in mid-December.
CAIR denies the allegations and has called on Floridians to urge state lawmakers and Florida’s congressional delegation to publicly reject the order, which it described as “unconstitutional and anti-Muslim.”
The group argued that DeSantis’ order “misuses state terrorism statutes” and that only the U.S. Secretary of State may designate foreign terrorist organizations under federal law. While that’s true — states cannot legally designate a group a federally recognized foreign terrorist organization — states can, and have, created state-law labels and attached state consequences such as contracting bans, funding cutoffs or property restrictions.
In response to a request for comment Florida Politics made Tuesday, CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said he and the organization would “defer to our legal team to address those arguments in court.”
He then provided more than half a dozen links to CAIR posts and statements, including “Dispelling Rumors About CAIR,” “CAIR: A Principled Voice Against Antisemitism and Terrorism,” several statements condemning the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, and a statement the group said it has maintained online since 2009 condemning “all acts of terrorism.”
CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper also shared links. One chronicled Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes’ decadeslong history of what it described as anti-Muslim activism and statements. Another included links to a report detailing how the Network Contagion Research Institute received $335,000 in 2021 from the Israel on Campus Coalition, whose founder, Joel Finkelstein, is also the Director of pro-Israel venture capital firm Hetz Ventures.
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted CAIR a preliminary injunction March 4, writing that the question before his court was whether DeSantis could unilaterally designate one of the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights groups as a terrorist organization and withhold government benefits from those who support it.
“This Court finds he cannot,” Walker wrote. “The First Amendment bars the Governor from continuing the troubling trend of using an executive office to make a political statement at the expense of others’ constitutional rights.”
Walker found CAIR had shown likely success on a First Amendment coercion claim, citing evidence that a Florida production company withdrew from a podcast deal after the order and that the South Florida Muslim Federation disassociated CAIR-Florida from a Coral Springs conference after Attorney General James Uthmeier put local officials “on notice” about using public facilities or taxpayer-funded resources to host the Florida Muslim Conference.
Florida has since moved to codify broader state powers.
Early this month, DeSantis signed legislation (HB 1471) creating a process for Florida officials to designate terrorist organizations. The measure, sponsored by Fort Pierce Sen. Erin Grall and Dania Beach Rep. Hillary Cassel, also expands crimes for support and membership of designated groups, restricts funding and contracts, bars courts from applying religious law that violates constitutional rights and mandates discipline for students who promote such groups.
DeSantis predicted the new law, effective July 1, will attract additional lawsuits.
“We’ll almost always win on appeal,” he added.
CAIR told CBS News it was ready to sue again if the Governor targets it under the new law.
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