CAIR Files Lawsuit Against Texas Over Governor Abbott’s ‘Terrorist’ Designation

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has filed a federal lawsuit against Texas Governor Greg Abbott, challenging his recent proclamation designating the organization as a “foreign terrorist organization.” The legal action, initiated Thursday by CAIR’s Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters, seeks to overturn what the organization describes as an unconstitutional executive decree.

In the lawsuit, CAIR argues that Abbott’s proclamation violates both the U.S. Constitution and Texas state law. “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,” the organization stated in its court filing.

CAIR, established in 1994, operates 25 chapters across the United States. The Texas chapter maintains a modest staff of eight employees and two contractors, according to the legal documents.

The governor’s proclamation, issued earlier this week, extends the “terrorist” designation to the Muslim Brotherhood as well, despite neither group being classified as terrorist organizations by federal authorities. Abbott’s decree also prohibits CAIR from purchasing land in Texas under a recently enacted statute designed to prevent land acquisitions by entities connected to “foreign adversaries.”

In their filing, CAIR contends that Abbott based his declaration on “inflammatory statements with no basis in fact” and selectively cited remarks from affiliates to portray the organization as sympathetic to terrorism.

“No civil rights organizations are safe if a governor can baselessly and unilaterally declare any of them terrorist groups, ban them from buying land, and threaten them with closure,” said Lena Masri, CAIR’s Litigation Director and General Counsel, in a statement. “We have beaten Greg Abbott’s attacks on the First Amendment before, and God willing, we will do it again now.”

The Muslim Legal Fund of America has expressed support for the legal challenge. The organization’s attorney, Charlie Swift, stated, “Mr. Abbott’s unconstitutional proclamation undermines the very foundational notions of due process that our system depends upon and it must not stand. For the sake of our nation’s basic freedoms, Greg Abbott’s latest attack on the American people must be defeated.”

This conflict emerges against a backdrop of escalating tensions regarding Muslim communities in Texas. Earlier this year, Abbott and other Republican state officials launched investigations into a Muslim-centered planned community near Dallas associated with the East Plano Islamic Center (EPIC). State officials claimed the development was attempting to create an exclusive community operating under Islamic law, allegations that EPIC representatives dismissed as dangerous and baseless.

The U.S. Justice Department subsequently conducted a civil rights investigation into the planned community but closed the case without filing charges or lawsuits.

The confrontation between Texas authorities and CAIR highlights growing political and cultural tensions surrounding Muslim communities in the state. CAIR-Texas issued a defiant statement in response to Abbott’s actions: “CAIR-Texas and the Texas Muslim community are standing up for our constitutional rights by directly confronting Greg Abbott’s lawless attack on our civil rights. We are not and will not be intimidated by smear campaigns launched by Israel First politicians like Mr. Abbott.”

The organization further stated that Abbott’s actions were motivated by CAIR’s effectiveness as an advocate for justice both domestically and internationally, pledging to “continue exercising our constitutional rights, defending civil rights, and speaking truth to power, whether in defense of free speech, religious freedom and racial equality here in Texas or in defense of human rights abroad.”

The case now awaits judicial review as both sides prepare for what could be a precedent-setting legal battle over executive authority, religious freedom, and civil liberties in Texas.