A judge gave a blistering assessment of the Trump administration’s efforts to go after international students who expressed pro-Palestinian views on college campuses.
A federal judge in Massachusetts ruled Tuesday that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio violated the First Amendment by targeting pro-Palestinian students for deportation in order to strike fear into international students and curb lawful speech.
In a 161-page decision, U.S. District Judge William Young delivered a blistering assessment of the Trump administration’s efforts to pursue international students who expressed pro-Palestinian views on college campuses, which he said was constitutionally protected speech.
The judge, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan, was unsparing not only in his views of Noem and Rubio’s actions, but also of President Trump, who he said approves of „truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech“ on the part of two senior administration officials.
„The president’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans‘ freedom of speech“, he wrote.
Of Noem and Rubio, as well as other administration officials, Young wrote that they „acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target noncitizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech“, and did so through targeted deportation proceedings aimed at pro-Palestinian student activists across the country, which „continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.“
The judge issued his decision after holding a nine-day trial that examined whether the administration had violated the free speech rights of academic associations that sued the Trump administration for arrests, detentions and deportations of foreign students and faculty who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
Young praised the witnesses who testified on behalf of the government, saying of them that they were „decent, credible, dedicated nonpartisan professionals. True patriots who, in order to do their duty, have been weaponized by their highest superiors to reach foregone conclusions for most ignoble ends.
