Judge rules Trump policy to deport students over pro-Palestinian views is unconstitutional [View all]

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