Good, though of course that they have to do this is an outrage.
Two Texas chapters for the Center on American-Islamic Relations sued Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton in federal court Thursday after the governor designated the group a foreign terrorist organization and banned it from owning land in Texas.
The suit, filed in the federal Western District by CAIR Texas chapters in Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin, comes two days after Abbott made the designation against both CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood. The governor pointed to a new law approved by the Texas Legislature earlier this year allowing him to declare a country or group in Texas a foreign terrorist organization solely for the purpose of preventing them from owning properties.
Thursday’s suit comes just hours after Abbott directed the Texas Department of Safety to investigate CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood for alleged criminal activities.
Abbott also claimed CAIR has “repeatedly employed, affiliated with, and supported individuals promoting terrorism-related activities.”
CAIR, one of the largest Muslim civil rights groups in America, was established with a stated goal to challenge stereotypes about the Islamic faith. Most of its work focuses on civil rights and anti-defamation.
Abbott has repeatedly called CAIR a “front group” for Hamas and a direct subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“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,” a CAIR spokesperson wrote in a statement Thursday. “We are not and will not be intimidated by smear campaigns launched by Israel First politicians like Mr. Abbott. Mr. Abbott is defaming us and other American Muslims because we are effective advocates for justice here and abroad.”
Among several things, the suit claims Abbott violated the group’s First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and association. The suit also alleges Abbott designated the group a terrorist organization without due process, violating its Fourteenth Amendment rights. And, it claims Paxton violated the federal constitution after Abbott directed him to ban CAIR and its members from owning land.
“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 suit reads.
See here for some background. The Chron adds some details.
The governor said he included CAIR because of a 2007 case in which the group was named as one of almost 300 with reported ties to the Holy Land Foundation, a Texas-based charity that was shut down by the U.S. government for funneling millions of dollars to Hamas. CAIR was never indicted and has denied the allegations.
In its lawsuit, filed in federal court in Austin this week, the group argues that Abbott made the unlawful move “to punish the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization simply because Governor Abbott disagrees with its views.”
The suit says Abbott neglected to mention that the government assigned the same label to dozens of organizations and that a federal appeals court later ruled the declarations should have been filed under seal because they contained “untested allegation(s).”
It also says he “cherry-picks statements from individuals with various levels of affiliation with CAIR, claiming that those uncited statements somehow support that CAIR supports terrorism or terrorist actors,” the suit reads.
The suit seeks for the court to declare Abbott’s proclamation of the designation unconstitutional and block its enforcement.
The law in question here is the same one whose original intent was to block Chinese nationals from buying property in Texas. Fruit of the poisoned tree and all that. I’m going to hand this off to a couple of legislators:
Religious freedom is a core American value.
We urge Gov. Abbott to reverse this harmful proclamation and stop singling out Muslim Texans with suspicion.
We stand united in defending the dignity, safety, and constitutional rights of all religious Texans.
— Salman Bhojani (@SalmanBhojaniTX) 5:42 PM – 19 November 2025
The Governor is not the arbiter of whose speech is welcome and whose beliefs are welcome in Texas.
My statement on Greg Abbott’s actions against Muslim American organizations in Texas:
#txlege
— Gene Wu (@GeneForTexas) 4:53 PM – 19 November 2025
Once more I say, never speak to me of “cancel culture” or being a “free speech warrior” ever again. Lone Star Left and the Current have more.
Isn’t this ultimately about “Palestinians” or something? I am not sure, because I never see the word “Palestine” or “Palestinian” here on Kuff, even though ONE pro-Palestinian protestor from Columbia University remains in ICE detention — here in Tex-ass, subject of a long piece recently from the Barbed Wire. https://thebarbedwire.com/2025/10/27/leqaa-kordia-palestinian-protester-ice-detention/ and of course, even though DPS kettle-arrested pro-Palestinian protestors earlier this year at UT.