BY OSCAR CORRAL

A federal judge has struck down a controversial state law that essentially banned professors at state universities in Florida from traveling to Cuba for research purposes, declaring it unconstitutional.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz ruled that the 2006 law, pushed aggressively by State Rep. David Rivera, "is an impermissible sanction and serves as an obstacle to the objectives of the federal government.''

The law prohibited the use of state and nonstate funds for travel to Cuba and other countries labeled by the U.S. government as state sponsors of terrorism.

The judge struck down one provision of the law -- the one banning nonstate or private funds from being used for such travel.

That means most academics at state universities would be allowed to resume travel to Cuba because most of those trips are covered by private funds, said Florida International University Professor Lisandro Perez, who founded the university's Cuba Research Institute.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit challenging the law in 2006 on behalf of FIU's faculty senate.

''It was a mean-spirited bill,'' said FIU Faculty Senate Chairman Tom Breslin. "It was made to turn back the clock. I'm glad it's gone for the sake of academic freedom.''

Rivera, who is in Minnesota for the Republican National Convention, said he vowed to continue pushing the principles behind the law.

''I think the judge has erred in her decision by overstepping into what is clearly a state issue in terms of budget authority, and I look forward to either an appeal of the decision or remedying her error through the budget process year after year,'' he said.

ACLU representatives scolded Rivera for ''misleading'' fellow legislators to get support the 2006 bill, which passed unanimously.

ACLU of Florida Executive Director Howard Simon pointed to transcripts of Rivera's remarks on the House floor in Tallahassee. Rivera had repeatedly told fellow legislators that travel with non-state or private funds would still be allowed to under the bill.

''This bill was enacted unanimously by the legislature because they were misled by State Representative David Rivera,'' Simon said. "We cannot be in a state of enforced ignorance.''

FIU's Perez, who has traveled to Cuba for research trips, blasted Rivera.

''Increasingly what has happened is that this has become an agenda for some state legislators from the Miami area who want to stake their political careers on appearing to be tough on Cuba from Tallahassee,'' Perez said. "This was an insult by David Rivera.''

Rivera shot back that travel to Cuba, even for academic or research purposes, was ''aiding and abetting'' a terrorist regime.

''It's unfortunate that some believe that protecting taxpayer money from being used to subsidize travel to terrorist nations is demagoguery,'' Rivera said.

The bill had frozen most of the academic exchanges and research trips sponsored by state universities over the last two years.

The judge's decision pointed out several cases where the bill shut down or critically hampered several active state programs that promoted academic exchange with Cuba.

Florida ACLU Legal Director Randall Marshall said the judge's ruling shows that some Cuban American politicians in South Florida are still expending a hefty portion of their political clout on the wrong causes.

''I think this law was a slap to Cubans in South Florida,'' Breslin said.

"More and more, there has been a failure by our state representatives to bring home the bacon from Tallahassee. This sort of grandstanding and demagoguery is a very ineffective use of political power.''