(RNS) — The Council on American-Islamic Relations is fighting against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s labeling of the Muslim civil rights group as a foreign terrorist organization, calling his action “illegal” and “defamatory” in a lawsuit filed Thursday (Nov. 20).
On Tuesday, Abbott filed a “proclamation designating the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as Foreign Terrorists and Transnational Criminal Organizations under the Texas Penal and Texas Property Codes” and argued that in doing so he could allow the state to shut down CAIR’s Texas chapters and ban them from purchasing land in the state. The federal lawsuit argues that Abbott improperly used his office to target the domestic nonprofit without due process and in violation of federal law.
Attorneys representing the Texas chapters also allege Abbott’s designation is retaliatory, meant to silence CAIR after the group won three lawsuits against the governor in recent months.
“This attempt to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because Governor Abbott disagrees with its views is not only contrary to the United States Constitution, but finds no support in any Texas law,” lawyers wrote in the suit filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas.
In recent years, several bills have been proposed in Congress to designate CAIR as a terrorist group, but none have passed. The U.S. State Department, under federal law, alone has the power to designate foreign terrorist organizations. States do not have the authority to make such a designation at a federal level and Abbott appears to be the first governor to attempt to do so at …