Florida law penalizes terrorist support and restricts school and government spending

Florida’s Chief of Domestic Security can designate terrorist groups with approval from the Governor and Cabinet. The money restrictions cover state agencies, local governments, and public school districts authorized to spend state money or levy property taxes. Domestic groups must be based or operate in the United States, engage in terrorist activity, and pose an ongoing security threat. Foreign groups must have a federal terrorist designation and pose an ongoing threat. Covered agencies cannot spend state money or property taxes supporting listed groups or their members, contract with listed groups, or accept their money. They can collect taxes, fines, forfeitures, and payments for goods or services. The Department of State can begin dissolving a covered corporation once its designation is published and any timely court challenge is resolved against it. Organizations receive notice if they have an identifiable location and delivery is safe. Their notice need not include the written findings supporting designation. The law took effect July 1, 2026. Approval must wait at least seven days after notice; publication follows within seven days. Groups or members have 30 days after publication to challenge designation in Leon County circuit court. Each designation must be reviewed at least every five years.

Florida public colleges and state universities must immediately expel students found to have promoted listed terrorist groups and charge them out-of-state fees. Expulsion and higher fees cover Florida College System and state university students. The group’s designation must appear in the Florida Administrative Register, the state’s official notice publication. Promotion requires a statement or action supporting a group’s unlawful violence. In context, it must involve a true threat, serious disruption of learning, substantial disorder, invasion of others’ rights, material support, or recruitment. Students who promote listed groups during enrollment cannot receive fee waivers or institutional or state aid covered by these sections. Public colleges must report the current status of students attending on student visas who promote listed groups. These provisions took effect July 1, 2026. The fee and aid rules cover promotion during any term of enrollment.

People face felony penalties, meaning penalties for serious crimes, for specified support of or work for designated terrorist groups. These rules cover designated domestic groups whose designation has been published, alongside designated foreign groups covered by the criminal sections. Knowingly providing, attempting to provide, or conspiring to provide material support is a first-degree felony. The person must know the group’s designation or involvement in terrorism. Using, attempting to use, or conspiring to use military training from a designated group with intent to unlawfully harm someone or damage critical infrastructure is a second-degree felony. Death or serious bodily injury makes it a first-degree felony. Willfully joining and serving under a group’s direction or control is a second-degree felony when the person intends to further its illegal acts. For the rule about providing personnel, someone acting entirely independently does not count as working under a group’s direction and control. These provisions took effect July 1, 2026.

Schools must follow restrictions on relationships with terrorist and criminal groups and on spending that promotes designated terrorist groups. The rules cover participating private schools, public schools and charter schools, Florida public colleges and state universities, and their support organizations. Scholarship-participating private schools must prohibit hiring, contracts, ownership, operation, and funding involving people or entities affiliated with or controlled by covered groups or supporters. Covered ties include criminal gangs, cross-border crime groups, people who provide or receive material support, repeated advocates of terrorism, and school groups promoting listed terrorist groups or their material supporters. Public schools cannot spend state or federal money on programs promoting listed terrorist groups or their material supporters. Public colleges face that spending ban for programs promoting listed groups. Education boards may withhold funding tied to college performance for violations. College student groups may still receive student-fee funding and use facilities under written policies despite otherwise prohibited expression. These provisions took effect July 1, 2026.

Courts and other decision-makers cannot apply foreign or religious law when doing so violates a person’s constitutional rights. The rules cover courts, agencies, arbitrators, and other legally established decision-makers. Religious law means formal rules based on sacred texts or traditions and includes Sharia law. Courts cannot enforce foreign judgments based on foreign or religious law that conflicts with constitutional rights or fundamental standards of justice. Terms choosing a contract’s governing law cannot be enforced to the extent they violate constitutional rights. Courts cannot enforce terms choosing where a case is heard when rights violations are likely. The rules exclude religious organizations’ internal religious matters, including doctrine and decisions about employees or clergy. The definitions exclude U.S. constitutional and statutory law, common law, tribal law, natural rights recognized in U.S. legal tradition, and ratified U.S. treaties in force. These provisions took effect July 1, 2026.