Civil Rights and Nonprofit Organizations File Amicus Brief Defending CAIR’s First Amendment Rights

Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF), the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality, and ten additional nonprofit organizations filed an amicus brief in CAIR v. DeSantis. The amici organizations are represented by Gibson Dunn, LDF, and the Korematsu Center.

The brief argues that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis ' Executive Order 25-244 falsely labels the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organization in America, as a "terrorist" organization based on discriminatory stereotypes and Islamophobic claims. The executive order aims to punish CAIR and impede other organizations from associating with CAIR, violating their First Amendment rights. The brief explains how the Executive Order is another unjust example of our nation's long history of state governments weaponizing their power to wrongly label dissident organizations and marginalized groups as security threats. Allowing the Executive Order to stand would set a dangerous precedent affecting many other groups.

A district court issued a preliminary injunction, which blocks the governor's executive order. The injunction is now on appeal before the Eleventh Circuit. Last week, the governor separately announced his intention to designate CAIR, "Antifa," and other groups as domestic terrorist organizations under a newly enacted Florida law. Support for such organizations is punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment.

"CAIR is a victim of America's historical pattern of using governmental powers to demonize and undermine civil rights organizations while promoting baseless, racially discriminatory narratives. Decades ago, the U.S. government targeted the Legal Defense Fund and NAACP to impede its advocacy efforts and hinder goals to end segregation with many of the same tactics," said Avatara Smith-Carrington, Assistant Counsel at LDF. "Florida's government officials are drawing from racist stereotypes about Muslims and designating a Muslim civil rights group as a 'terrorist' organization without evidence of such serious accusations. We urge the court to put a stop to the unlawful, discriminatory attack on CAIR that chills free speech and outlaws constitutionally-protected activities."

"State governments have often labeled immigrant and minority communities security threats by linking them to shadowy foreign threats based on guilt by association," said Shirin Sinnar, a non-resident fellow of the Korematsu Center and Stanford Law professor. "This executive order is no different, and courts should find it violates the First Amendment."

"The Japanese American community knows all too well what can happen when the government discriminates against groups and individuals based on perceived disloyalty and association with foreign powers," said Robert Chang, Executive Director of the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality. "The court can play a critical role in stopping history from repeating."

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