If your goal were to hold onto political power and you didn’t care about following the U.S. Constitution, you would do two things: First, make voting harder for certain groups. Second, outlaw protests.
Florida Republican leaders in the state legislature are barreling ahead with dangerous bills that would concentrate extraordinary power in the hands of a few government officials to secretly label nonprofit organizations and student groups that engage in community activism as “domestic terrorists” and impose severe penalties on Floridians who support these organizations.
Urge your state representative and senator to oppose these anti-free speech bills (HB 1471/SB 1632).
This is not a hypothetical concern. Just last month in Minneapolis, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good were callously labeled “domestic terrorists” by some of the highest-ranking government officials — not based on any evidence of terrorism, but to slander their reputation, turn public opinion against them, and justify their killings by law enforcement.
This dangerously overbroad legislation threatens fundamental civil liberties guaranteed by the 1st and 4th Amendments, and places unchecked surveillance and enforcement authority in the hands of a few politicians.
The process for labeling an activist group “domestic terrorists” is so lacking in transparency under this bill that it explicitly prevents the public from learning how or why the label is applied in every instance.
Protest, civil discourse, and organizing have a history of shaping a more just and representative democracy in our country and this bill would undermine decades of progress and participation. Under HB 1471, felony penalties would apply for donating to, advising, or volunteering with an organization given the so-called “domestic terrorist organization” label.
These bills violate our constitutional rights to free speech, free association and due process. Florida should focus on prosecuting actual violence under existing law, not creating a politicized designation system designed to chill lawful, constitutionally protected dissent.
For freedom from government overreach,
Mark and the Progress Florida team