On September 22nd, President Trump issued an executive order designating “Antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization.”

In a new blog post, Cato Institute Senior Fellow Patrick Eddington points out that this order is attempting to designate an idea – antifascism – as an organization, and that there’s no constitutional provision or statute granting any president the power to designate a domestic civil society organization a “domestic terrorist organization.”

The executive order’s declaration that “Antifa is a militarist, anarchist enterprise that explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and our system of law” is more than false—it is designed to act as a justification for legal and coercive action, Eddington says.

You can read the full piece here. If you would like to speak with Eddington, please reach out to Madison at mmiller@​cato.​org.