Legislators in the United States House of Representatives have voted down a bill that would have granted the Department of the Treasury broad authority to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed to be supporting “terrorism”.

On Tuesday, the Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act, or HR 9495, failed to reach the two-thirds majority needed in the House to pass.

Critics had feared the legislation would have been used against pro-Palestinian and other rights groups.

It was first introduced in response to widespread campus protests against Israel’s war on Gaza — during which several Palestinian solidarity groups were branded as “pro-Hamas” by pro-Israeli politicians and news outlets.

But the potentially sweeping implications of the legislation took on new urgency in the aftermath of President-elect Donald Trump’s win in last week’s US election.

Even before the election, civil rights advocates had widely condemned the proposed legislation. In a letter signed by more than 100 groups in September, they warned that the bill “raises significant constitutional concerns” and that because it vests “vast unilateral discretion in the Secretary of Treasury, it creates a high risk of politicized and discriminatory enforcement”.

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Now that Trump is headed back to the White House — prompting widespread fears of an impending crackdown on civil rights — advocates warned the legislation could empower the incoming administration with an incredibly dangerous tool to crack down on dissent with few checks and balances.

“This is much more of a real threat right now,” Kia Hamadanchy, a senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Al Jazeera ahead of Tuesday’s House vote. “We know that Trump is going to be president. I don’t know if it’s the time to give him additional authority.”

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