Trump's Antifa Executive Order Is Dangerously Vague

"In the wake of Donald Trump's (not to mention Stephen Miller's) threats of vengeance against the "radical left" for a totally unproven complicity in the assassination of Charlie Kirk, anyone concerned about civil liberties or democracy has waited with bated breath for the president's next steps. At first, he just increased pressure on his subordinates to investigate and prosecute people high on the preexisting Trump-enemies lists, like James Comey, Adam Schiff, and Letitia James."

"But now, he has issued an executive order, perhaps the first of many, targeting "the left." It aims at the low-hanging fruit of a near-mythical movement known as antifa, labeling it as a "domestic terrorist organization" and authorizing investigation and prosecution of anyone alleged to have helped or funded it. There are two immediate problems with this EO. The first is that there is no law supporting the designation of anything or anyone as a "domestic terrorist organization.""

"There is authority whereby the State Department can designate "foreign domestic terrorist" entities like al-Qaeda and ISIS, but that's obviously different. (It's also worth noting that up until recently the second Trump administration has bristled at any talk of "domestic terrorism" as usually referring to conservative extremists it views as acceptable). The second problem is that Antifa isn't actually an organization, as the New York Times explains,"

Donald Trump escalated pressure to investigate or prosecute listed political adversaries and issued an executive order targeting the 'left' by labeling antifa a 'domestic terrorist organization' and authorizing investigations and prosecutions of alleged helpers or funders. No federal law authorizes designation of a 'domestic terrorist organization'; State Department authority covers foreign terrorist entities only. The administration recently avoided calling conservative extremists 'domestic terrorism.' Antifa lacks centralized structures: no leader, initiation, membership rolls, headquarters, bank account, or centralized organization. Antifa functions as a label for a political subculture or protest style and can exist as a loose activist network.

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