In a scathing 161-page ruling issued on September 30, federal Judge William G. Young ripped into the Trump fascist regime’s plot to deport pro-Palestinian students such as Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk for their political actions and speech against the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide of Palestinians. Young, who was appointed to the bench in the 1980s by then-President Ronald Reagan, calls out the regime, particularly Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and their underlings who “under the cover of an unconstitutionally broad definition of Anti-Semitism… 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… They did so in order to strike fear into similarly situated noncitizen pro-Palestinian individuals, pro-actively (and effectively) curbing lawful pro-Palestinian speech and intentionally denying such individuals (including the plaintiffs here) the freedom of speech that is their right.” 

He called this case “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court” and that it “squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.” Young stated, “Rather, the intent of the Secretaries [Rubio and Noem] was more invidious [offensive]… to target a few for speaking out and then use the full rigor of the Immigration and Nationality Act (in ways it had never been used before) to have them publicly deported,” with the goal of clamping down on “pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated non-citizen (and other) pro-Palestinians into silence because their views were unwelcome.”

Young blasted the Trump regime for its strategy to deport pro-Palestinian academics that “continues unconstitutionally to chill freedom of speech to this day.” Writing later in his ruling, Young remarked, “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….” 

And he poses a question, for all people of conscience: “I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up for, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected. Is he correct?”