A U.S. judge on Tuesday found that the Trump administration violated the Constitution by targeting foreign students and faculty engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy with visa revocations, arrests, detentions and deportations.
U.S. District Judge William Young in Boston sided with groups representing university faculty in finding that the administration was chilling free speech on college campuses in violation of the Constitution's First Amendment.
His decision only assessed whether the administration had adopted an unlawful policy. Young has said he would determine what remedy to impose at a later phase of the case. Lawyers for the faculty groups have urged him to bar the Trump administration from threatening such arrests and deportations going forward.
Young, an appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, issued the ruling after presiding over a trial in a challenge to actions the administration undertook as part of the Republican president's hardline immigration agenda.
The lawsuit was filed in March after immigration authorities arrested recent Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, the first target of Trump's effort to deport non-citizen students with pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel views.
