Court ruling affirms free speech for non-citizens
Judge cites unconstitutional targeting of student protests
By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey
..... A federal judge has ruled that non-citizens have the same freedom to express opinion and exercise their free speech rights that citizens have.
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The September 30 [2025] ruling came from a lawsuit brought against the Trump administration by a professional association and labor union repressiveness professors and teaching faculty members at Rutgers, Harvard and New York University.
..... The suit was filed in response to a spate of visa revocations and high-profile arrests of foreign students who spoke out against Israel's military campaign in Gaza in connection with the October 7, 2023, attacks a student-led movement that swept the nation last spring. [2024] Among those arrest were green card holder Mahmoud Khalil, who was among the leaders of campus protest at Columbia University.
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The Knight First amendment Institute at Columbia University filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Association of American University Professors, or AAUP, along with its chapters at the three universities, and the Middle east Studies Association, or MESA, a Washington, DC-based group. They sued senior figures in the administration and the Cabinet, including President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security chief Kristi Noem and acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons, in March. [2025]
..... The lawsuit argued that the Trump administration was wielding an "ideological deportation policy" that "chills non-citizens form speaking and, by extension, robs these organizations and their U.S. citizen members of non-citizens' perspectives on a matter of significant public debate."
..... "The First Amendment means that Government has no power to thwart the process of free discussion," wrote Massachusetts federal Judge William Yong, granting the AAUP and MESA claim that "political speech on its now" was not a legitimate reason to expel the students.
..... "Plaintiffs have shown that Secretaries Noem and Rubio are engaged in a mode of enforcement leading to detaining, deporting, and revoking non-citizens' visas solely on the basis of political speech, ... Scud conduct is not only unconstitutional, but a thing virtually unknown to our constitutional tradition," Young wrote, in a 161-page opinion that also noted Trump's own sue of social media and his posts on X, formerly twitter, to stoke public filling against students who criticized Israel.
..... The opinion referred to interviews with the media in which Rubio and other administration officials describe many of the students as supporting terrorist organizations, without offering clear evidence.
..... Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish University doctoral student at Tufts University who wrote an op-ed in the student newspaper criticizing the university's rejection of student government resolutions related to the Middle East war, was arrested on March 25 [2025] by masked immigration officers on a sidewalk in Somerville, Massachusetts. She spent 45 days in ICE detention in Louisiana before being released, said the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing her. Her case is ongoing.
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The AAUP filed its lawsuit the same day.
..... Earlier that month, on March 5, [2025] the State Depart4emnt revoked the student visa of Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian national and doctoral student at Columbia. On March 8, [2025] Khalil, a Columbia University student and green card holder married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested by ICE offices, Around that time, ICE agents also informed Yunseo Chung, a Koren native and green card holder studying at Columbia University, that her permanent resident status was revoked.
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"Our courageous non-citizen members stepped up and shared there experiences of losing their ability to speak freely because of the chilling effect of Trump administration policy," Rutgers AAUP-AFT President Rebecca Givan said in a statement. "Our unions and association are fighting for our rights, while higher ed institutions are failing to do so. It's a sad state of affairs when a ruling that merely affirms all of our First Amendment rights feels like a tremendous victory."
..... The government engaged in "a kind of international ratcheting-up of 'President Trump's Execute Orders' instructing his administration to target antisemitic harassment and violence," wrote Young, the judge, and it encroached upon free speech rights by using "a definition of antisemitism that encompassed protected political speech."
..... The ruling "is historic, not because the decision itself is groundbreaking but because we are in a historic moment when the federal government is seriously distorting and abusing the First Amendment and is attacking immigrants and anyone that disagrees with them," said Eily Brinkley, an attorney at PEN America, an anti-censorship and free expression advocacy group and think tank. "It's such a strong affirmation of principles and values that seem intuitive."
..... The Anti-defamation League, another group advocating for free speech, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.