Ron DeSantis risking 'really dangerous' backfire over newly signed law: expert

Ron DeSantis may be on legally unsafe ground after signing into law legislation to "combat terrorist groups and ban Sharia Law in Florida", a legal analyst has claimed.

The Governor of Florida signed into law the HB 1471 legislation earlier this month, which DeSantis' office claims will strengthen the "protections against the application of foreign and religious laws that violate constitutional rights and establishing new safeguards against terrorist organizations operating in Florida."

DeSantis added, "To uphold the rule of law, our state must operate under one legal system, the Constitution must remain the law of the land, and we must defend our institutions from those who would harm us—especially terrorist organizations that seek to infiltrate and subvert our education system."

This could prove legally damning for DeSantis and his team, with law expert Shirin Sinnar, a professor of law at Stanford University, explaining to Salon how this could backfire.

"So it is unprecedented for a state to claim the authority to designate terrorist organizations," Sinnar said. "States do have various terrorism laws, but to the extent that any refer to foreign terrorist organizations, it’s generally been piggybacking on the federal designations, and even those are very few.

“So this is different, because claiming the authority of state officials to determine who is a terrorist and then impose consequences is really new, and I think, really dangerous."

Salon columnist Russell Payne added, "It’s unprecedented, Sinnar explained, because the state-level designation, while distinct, goes beyond the federal law governing the designation of terrorist organizations, which have been restrained by the First Amendment.

"Even if the Florida model simply mirrored the federal model, that itself would still be legally suspect, because federal law would preempt state law in this context."

Sinnar explained, "You don’t want localities or states getting into the business of designating their enemies or their political adversaries or the people they disagree with as terrorists. That’s just not a good thing.

"The terrorism designations pack a lot of power, and they are highly problematic even in the form that we have them right now, which is at the federal level. Extending it to states and cities would just be disastrous.

"I do worry a lot about these laws, because even if they don’t ultimately get sustained in court, they are doing a lot of damage in the meantime.”