A federal judge in Boston Tuesday ruled that the Trump administration’s push to arrest and deport international students for voicing their support for Palestinians was an illegal, “truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech.”
The case was brought by a group of university faculty in response to the administration’s targeting of noncitizen students, including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Ozturk, who had publicly opposed Israel’s war in Gaza.
Who said what
U.S. District Judge William Young, appointed four decades ago by Ronald Reagan, said the case was “perhaps the most important ever to fall” before his court. His “blistering ruling” followed a July trial in which top Trump administration officials “described orchestrating the arrests of these activists and taking cues from an anonymously run website,” Politico said.
Young “directly and sharply” criticized President Donald Trump in his “scathing” opinion, The Associated Press said. “Noncitizens lawfully present” in the U.S. “have the same free speech rights as the rest of us,” he said. And Trump’s “palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech.” A White House spokesperson said Young’s “outrageous” ruling “hampers the safety and security of our nation.”
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Young “said he would hold a hearing at a later date on which remedies to impose for the free-speech violations,” The Wall Street Journal said, though he “suggested his options might be limited.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.
