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BumRushDaShow

(163,346 posts) Tue Sep 30, 2025, 01:18 PM Sep 30

Judge rules Trump policy to deport students over pro-Palestinian views is unconstitutional

Source: The Guardian

Tue 30 Sep 2025 14.10 EDT
Last modified on Tue 30 Sep 2025 14.12 EDT

A federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s policy to detain and deport foreign scholars over their pro-Palestinian views violates the US constitution and was designed to “intentionally” chill free speech rights.

The case was brought by the national American Association of University Professors (AAUP); its Harvard, Rutgers and New York University chapters; and the Middle East Studies Association (Mesa), following the arrest and detention of several noncitizen students and scholars who have spoken out on Palestinian rights.

In a 161-page ruling issued on Tuesday, the judge, William G Young, called the case “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court”. “This case … squarely presents the issue whether noncitizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” Young wrote in the ruling. “The court answers this constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do’.”

“‘No law’ means ‘no law’,” Young continued – a reference to the first amendment’s stipulation that Congress “shall make no law” abridging the freedom of speech. “No one’s freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these limits are the same for both citizens and noncitizens alike.” The plaintiffs had accused the government of running an illegal “ideological-deportation policy”.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/30/trump-administration-immigration-palestine

Link to RULING (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mad.282460/gov.uscourts.mad.282460.261.0.pdf

7 replies

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Highlight:

Judge rules Trump policy to deport students over pro-Palestinian views is unconstitutional (Original Post) BumRushDaShow Sep 30 OP

What is the Constitution? I have a vague memory of it. C Moon Sep 30 #1

Make room, shadow docket. You have to stay yet another ruling. PSPS Sep 30 #2

I read the article about Trump being the President most using the shadow docket to get his way. riversedge Sep 30 #4

"Unfuck You" doesn't work but thanks for lesson in legality. twodogsbarking Sep 30 #3

The judge declined to stop deportations. iemanja Sep 30 #5

Trump administration illegally targeted pro-Palestinian protesters, judge rules LetMyPeopleVote Sep 30 #6

I love what the judge did with the cover page of this opinion LetMyPeopleVote Sep 30 #7

C Moon

(13,332 posts)

1. What is the Constitution? I have a vague memory of it.

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 01:52 PM

Sep 30

PSPS

(15,103 posts)

2. Make room, shadow docket. You have to stay yet another ruling.

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 02:57 PM

Sep 30

The "merits of the case" can be "decided" sometime in the next year or so.

riversedge

(78,834 posts)

4. I read the article about Trump being the President most using the shadow docket to get his way.

Reply to PSPS (Reply #2)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 03:47 PM

Sep 30

twodogsbarking

(16,760 posts)

3. "Unfuck You" doesn't work but thanks for lesson in legality.

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 03:33 PM

Sep 30

iemanja

(57,139 posts)

5. The judge declined to stop deportations.

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 03:58 PM

Sep 30

From the same article:

Despite finding that the Trump administration had unlawfully trampled noncitizens’ constitutional rights, Judge Young did not immediately block the government from attempting further deportations. Sticking with his usual process, he wrote that he would weigh in on remedies and settle on a way to respond to the government’s policy against student demonstrators at a later date.

LetMyPeopleVote

(172,659 posts)

6. Trump administration illegally targeted pro-Palestinian protesters, judge rules

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 04:27 PM

Sep 30

The efforts to detain and deport noncitizen activists earlier this year represented an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment, the ruling says.

Trump administration illegally targeted pro-Palestinian protesters, judge rules ðŸ‘€ðŸ—žï¸ðŸš¨

The efforts to detain and deport noncitizen activists earlier this year represented an unconstitutional infringement on the First Amendment, the ruling says.

wapo.st/4pPUT5I
Gift article ðŸŽ
— 2021-Free until now ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡¦ ðŸ’™ ðŸ¦ƒ (@patricia-ann.bsky.social) 2025-09-30T18:24:12.241Z

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2025/09/30/trump-administration-pro-palestinian-student-deportations-trial/

The Trump administration’s push earlier this year to arrest and deport international students for their pro-Palestinian activism was illegal, a federal judge ruled Tuesday, calling the crackdown a “truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech.”

In a sweeping rebuke, U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston said that the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department sought to target non-citizens “for speaking out” with the “goal of tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated” students.......

The bench trial — decided by a judge rather than a jury — sought to answer the question of whether noncitizens in the United States have the same rights to freedom of speech as citizens.

To pursue and remove noncitizen protesters, the Trump administration deployed the immigration enforcement apparatus in unprecedented ways, according to witness testimony......

In filings, lawyers for the plaintiffs and the government clashed over the question of whether noncitizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens. In a court document, lawyers for the Justice Department argued that noncitizens’ right to freedom of speech is already constrained, pointing to the fact that they are lawfully prohibited from donating to political candidates.

But the plaintiffs’ lawyers cited decisions by multiple courts affirming that noncitizens who were lawfully admitted to the country are entitled to “the full panoply” of First Amendment rights.

LetMyPeopleVote

(172,659 posts)

7. I love what the judge did with the cover page of this opinion

Reply to BumRushDaShow (Original post)

Tue Sep 30, 2025, 04:28 PM

Sep 30

I just started reading this opinion but the cover page really impressed me

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