Ken Paxton, attorney general for the state of Texas, has filed a legal response defending the state’s designation of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist organizations, or FTOs, after local CAIR chapters sued to block the move, according to a press release from Paxton’s office.
The dispute stems from a Nov. 18 proclamation by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, declaring the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR to be “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations” under Texas law.
The Dallas-Fort Worth and Austin chapters of CAIR sued the state on Nov. 20, arguing that the designations were “without due process and in violation of federal law,” as per the complaint, which asked the court to stop the state from enforcing the designations, and requested “compensatory damages.”
In an affidavit filed Dec. 22, Paxton’s office argued that the CAIR chapters are requesting damages “entirely on speculation,” rather than concrete harm. The response says the state has not taken enforcement action against the local chapters and that decisions on such designations fall within the authority of Texas’s political leadership, not the courts.
Paxton’s office noted that an FBI special agent has described CAIR as a “front group for Hamas.”
The attorney general stated that “radical Islamist terrorist groups are anti-American, and the infiltration of these dangerous individuals into Texas must be stopped.”
