Attorney General Ken Paxton has taken legal action to defend Texas’s lawful designation of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (“CAIR”) as foreign terrorist organizations under Texas law.
In a Proclamation on November 18, 2025, Governor Greg Abbott declared the Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR “foreign terrorist organizations” and “transnational criminal organizations.” The Dallas Fort Worth and Austin CAIR chapters then sued the State, claiming that the Proclamation “chilled” their First Amendment right to free speech. Attorney General Paxton’s office has now filed a response, noting in part that the local CAIR councils rely entirely on speculative claims and political disagreement with the State’s national security determinations and laws, leaving their argument baseless.
“Radical Islamist terrorist groups are anti-American, and the infiltration of these dangerous individuals into Texas must be stopped,” said Attorney General Paxton. “My office will continue to defend the Governor’s lawful, accurate declaration that CAIR is an FTO, as well as Texas’s right to protect itself from organizations with documented ties to foreign extremist movements.”
CAIR has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization not only by Texas, but also by the State of Florida and the United Arab Emirates and has been labeled by an FBI special agent as a “front group for Hamas.” Attorney General Paxton will continue to work to identify and combat foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations that threaten public safety, American values, and national security.
To read the filing, click here.
