A federal judge has temporarily blocked the enforcement of an executive order issued last year by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that designates two Muslim groups as foreign terrorist organizations. U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker wrote in his preliminary injunction Wednesday that 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. The governor’s order targeted the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood. His office didn’t immediately respond Wednesday evening to an email seeking comment about the judge’s order. CAIR and other civil rights groups sued DeSantis in December, shortly after the executive order was issued.
