Pro-Palestinian protesters organize at an encampment on the campus of Columbia University on April 29, 2024, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
"Having carefully considered the entirety of the record, this Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and the Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with the subordinate officials and agents of each of them, deliberately and with purposeful aforethought, did so concert their actions and those of their two departments intentionally to chill the rights to freedom of speech and peacefully to assemble of the non-citizen plaintiff members of the plaintiff associations," Young said.
"It was never the Secretaries’ immediate intention to deport all pro-Palestinian non-citizens for that obvious First Amendment violation, that could have raised a major outcry," Young said.
"Rather, the intent of the Secretaries was more insidious … 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 tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated non-citizen (and other) pro-Palestinians into silence because their views were unwelcome."
The case was litigated during a two-week trial in July.
Anti-Israel protesters gather in Washington Square Park in New York City on May 3, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi/Fox News Digital)
Young sided with the groups who argued the case on behalf of university faculty, ruling that the Trump administration's actions violated the First Amendment, as well as his oath to "preserve, protect and defend the constitution" as the commander-in-chief.
Trump's "palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech," he added. "It is at this juncture that the judiciary has robustly rebuffed the president and his administration."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected," Young said, finally. "Is he correct?"
Breanne Deppisch is a national politics reporter for Fox News Digital covering the Trump administration, with a focus on the Justice Department, FBI, and other national news.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/federal-judge-launches-scathing-broadside-trumps-efforts-deport-pro-palestinian-protesters