President Donald Trump typically channels former President Ronald Reagan, right down to his signature slogan, “make America nice once more.” However Decide William Younger, who was appointed by Reagan himself, cited Reagan’s legacy as a complete rebuke to Trump’s ruling philosophy. “Freedom is a fragile factor and it is by no means multiple era away from extinction,” Younger wrote in a ruling filed on Tuesday, quoting a speech by Reagan.
“I’ve come to consider that President Trump really understands and appreciates the complete import of President Reagan’s inspiring message—but I worry he has drawn from it a darker, extra cynical message,” Younger warned. “I worry President Trump believes the American persons are so divided that in the present day they won’t arise, struggle for, and defend our most valuable constitutional values as long as they’re lulled into considering their very own private pursuits are usually not affected.”
Younger’s ruling got here in response to one of many Trump administration’s signature insurance policies, its makes an attempt to close down Palestinian solidarity protests by deporting Palestinian college students and their supporters. The American Affiliation of College Professors and the Center East Research Affiliation sued a couple of days after the arrest of Columbia College graduate scholar Mahmoud Khalil, arguing that the coverage violates freedom of speech, each by intimidating overseas teachers in America and stopping American teachers “from listening to from, and associating with, their noncitizen college students and colleagues.”
Ruling that administration officers certainly “acted in live performance to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective workplaces to focus on non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation totally on account of their First Modification protected political speech,” Younger promised to carry a listening to on the precise measures he’ll order. He wrote that “it is not going to do merely to order the Public Officers to stop and desist sooner or later,” given the present political setting.
What appears to have set off Younger was a postcard from a hater: “Trump has pardons and tanks…What do you will have?” Younger hooked up a photocopy of the postcard to the highest of his ruling, and devoted the ruling to disproving the author. “Alone, I’ve nothing however my sense of obligation. Collectively, We the Individuals of america—you and me—have our magnificent Structure. This is how that works out in a particular case,” he wrote, inviting the letter author to go to his courthouse on the finish of the ruling.
The ruling itself meticulously outlined how a number of completely different activists—Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Yunseo Chung, and Badar Khan Suri—had been focused for deportation and the way the administration justified it, each internally and publicly. Though Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly claimed within the media that the deportations had been meant to focus on “riots” on campus, Younger reveals that the scholars had been typically focused based mostly on their opinions alone, with obscure chains of affiliation linking them to violent protests.
For instance, the Division of Homeland Safety famous in an intelligence evaluation that “Hamas flyers” had been handed out throughout a March 2025 protest that Khalil and Chung attended. However as Younger identified, there was “neither an allegation nor proof” that both Khalil or Chung themselves had been concerned in distributing the flyers.
In one other case, Öztürk was a member of Graduate College students for Palestine. As a result of that group cosigned a name for boycotting Israel with College students for Justice in Palestine, a bunch that was banned from Tufts College for allegedly utilizing violent imagery, the Division of Homeland Safety’s intelligence analysts tried to tie Öztürk to College students for Justice in Palestine, which she was not a member of. Younger, exasperated, known as the logic “arduous to comply with.”
He wrote that “there isn’t a proof that Öztürk did something however co-author an op-ed that criticized the College’s place on investments with Israel, that she criticized Israel, and that the group of which she was member joined in that criticism with a company that was banned on Tufts campus, with which she was not affiliated.”
Notably placing was the best way that the administration used nameless on-line blacklists as a foundation for investigation. In March 2025, the Division of Homeland Safety ordered its intelligence workplace to assessment all 5,000 names on Canary Mission, a controversial web site that lists allegedly antisemitic college students, Assistant Director Peter Hatch testified. The workplace additionally relied on names offered by Betar, an Israeli nationalist group that has bragged about getting its opponents deported, Hatch testified.
“These names that had been handed up the chain of command by the investigating subordinates had been nearly universally accredited for antagonistic motion, and, once more, the explanations for being handed up the chain of command included any type of on-line suggestion that one was ‘pro-Hamas,’ together with Canary Mission’s personal nameless articles,” Younger wrote.
The decide instantly addressed Rubio’s declare that, as a result of a visa or inexperienced card is a privilege, the federal government has limitless energy to take away non-citizens.
“This Courtroom partially should agree: non-citizens are, certainly, in a way our friends. How we deal with our friends is a query of constitutional scope, as a result of who we’re as a folks and as a nation is a crucial a part of how we should interpret the elemental legal guidelines that constrain us. We’re not, and we should not change into, a nation that imprisons and deports folks as a result of we’re afraid of what they’ve to inform us,” he wrote.
And, Younger argued, the choice to go after college students for activism they did earlier than Trump took workplace made the coverage particularly “arbitrary” and “capricious.” College students throughout America “have all been made to know that there are particular issues that it might be gravely harmful for them to say or do, however haven’t been advised exactly what these issues are,” he wrote, noting that lots of the arrests had been designed to be as intimidating as doable.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers snatched Öztürk off the road whereas carrying masks. “ICE goes masked for a single cause—to terrorize Individuals into quiescence,” Younger wrote, calling ICE officers “disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable” for attempting to argue in any other case. “In all our historical past we have now by no means tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on on this trend, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everybody who works in it,” he added, citing Abraham Lincoln.
Younger moved from a dialogue of the case right into a broadside in opposition to the best way immigration enforcement is utilized in America.
“ICE has nothing no matter to do with felony legislation enforcement and seeks to keep away from the precise felony courts in any respect prices. It’s carrying a civil legislation mandate handed by our Congress and pressed to its furthest attain by the President. Even so, it drapes itself within the public’s understanding of the felony legislation although its ‘warrants’ are however unreviewed orders from an ICE superior and its ‘immigration courts’ are usually not true courts in any respect however hearings earlier than officers who can not problem the authorized interpretations they’re given,” he wrote.
The Division of Homeland Safety responded publicly to Younger’s ruling—sarcastically, by accusing him of harmful speech. “It is disheartening that even after the terrorist assault and up to date arrests of rioters with weapons outdoors of ICE services, this decide decides to stoke the embers of hatred,” division spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin stated in a assertion, accusing Younger of “smearing and demonizing federal legislation enforcement.”
President Donald Trump typically channels former President Ronald Reagan, right down to his signature slogan, “make America nice once more.” However Decide William Younger, who was appointed by Reagan himself, cited Reagan’s legacy as a complete rebuke to Trump’s ruling philosophy. “Freedom is a fragile factor and it is by no means multiple era away from extinction,” Younger wrote in a ruling filed on Tuesday, quoting a speech by Reagan.
“I’ve come to consider that President Trump really understands and appreciates the complete import of President Reagan’s inspiring message—but I worry he has drawn from it a darker, extra cynical message,” Younger warned. “I worry President Trump believes the American persons are so divided that in the present day they won’t arise, struggle for, and defend our most valuable constitutional values as long as they’re lulled into considering their very own private pursuits are usually not affected.”
Younger’s ruling got here in response to one of many Trump administration’s signature insurance policies, its makes an attempt to close down Palestinian solidarity protests by deporting Palestinian college students and their supporters. The American Affiliation of College Professors and the Center East Research Affiliation sued a couple of days after the arrest of Columbia College graduate scholar Mahmoud Khalil, arguing that the coverage violates freedom of speech, each by intimidating overseas teachers in America and stopping American teachers “from listening to from, and associating with, their noncitizen college students and colleagues.”
Ruling that administration officers certainly “acted in live performance to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective workplaces to focus on non-citizen pro-Palestinians for deportation totally on account of their First Modification protected political speech,” Younger promised to carry a listening to on the precise measures he’ll order. He wrote that “it is not going to do merely to order the Public Officers to stop and desist sooner or later,” given the present political setting.
What appears to have set off Younger was a postcard from a hater: “Trump has pardons and tanks…What do you will have?” Younger hooked up a photocopy of the postcard to the highest of his ruling, and devoted the ruling to disproving the author. “Alone, I’ve nothing however my sense of obligation. Collectively, We the Individuals of america—you and me—have our magnificent Structure. This is how that works out in a particular case,” he wrote, inviting the letter author to go to his courthouse on the finish of the ruling.
The ruling itself meticulously outlined how a number of completely different activists—Khalil, Rümeysa Öztürk, Mohsen Mahdawi, Yunseo Chung, and Badar Khan Suri—had been focused for deportation and the way the administration justified it, each internally and publicly. Though Secretary of State Marco Rubio repeatedly claimed within the media that the deportations had been meant to focus on “riots” on campus, Younger reveals that the scholars had been typically focused based mostly on their opinions alone, with obscure chains of affiliation linking them to violent protests.
For instance, the Division of Homeland Safety famous in an intelligence evaluation that “Hamas flyers” had been handed out throughout a March 2025 protest that Khalil and Chung attended. However as Younger identified, there was “neither an allegation nor proof” that both Khalil or Chung themselves had been concerned in distributing the flyers.
In one other case, Öztürk was a member of Graduate College students for Palestine. As a result of that group cosigned a name for boycotting Israel with College students for Justice in Palestine, a bunch that was banned from Tufts College for allegedly utilizing violent imagery, the Division of Homeland Safety’s intelligence analysts tried to tie Öztürk to College students for Justice in Palestine, which she was not a member of. Younger, exasperated, known as the logic “arduous to comply with.”
He wrote that “there isn’t a proof that Öztürk did something however co-author an op-ed that criticized the College’s place on investments with Israel, that she criticized Israel, and that the group of which she was member joined in that criticism with a company that was banned on Tufts campus, with which she was not affiliated.”
Notably placing was the best way that the administration used nameless on-line blacklists as a foundation for investigation. In March 2025, the Division of Homeland Safety ordered its intelligence workplace to assessment all 5,000 names on Canary Mission, a controversial web site that lists allegedly antisemitic college students, Assistant Director Peter Hatch testified. The workplace additionally relied on names offered by Betar, an Israeli nationalist group that has bragged about getting its opponents deported, Hatch testified.
“These names that had been handed up the chain of command by the investigating subordinates had been nearly universally accredited for antagonistic motion, and, once more, the explanations for being handed up the chain of command included any type of on-line suggestion that one was ‘pro-Hamas,’ together with Canary Mission’s personal nameless articles,” Younger wrote.
The decide instantly addressed Rubio’s declare that, as a result of a visa or inexperienced card is a privilege, the federal government has limitless energy to take away non-citizens.
“This Courtroom partially should agree: non-citizens are, certainly, in a way our friends. How we deal with our friends is a query of constitutional scope, as a result of who we’re as a folks and as a nation is a crucial a part of how we should interpret the elemental legal guidelines that constrain us. We’re not, and we should not change into, a nation that imprisons and deports folks as a result of we’re afraid of what they’ve to inform us,” he wrote.
And, Younger argued, the choice to go after college students for activism they did earlier than Trump took workplace made the coverage particularly “arbitrary” and “capricious.” College students throughout America “have all been made to know that there are particular issues that it might be gravely harmful for them to say or do, however haven’t been advised exactly what these issues are,” he wrote, noting that lots of the arrests had been designed to be as intimidating as doable.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) brokers snatched Öztürk off the road whereas carrying masks. “ICE goes masked for a single cause—to terrorize Individuals into quiescence,” Younger wrote, calling ICE officers “disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable” for attempting to argue in any other case. “In all our historical past we have now by no means tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on on this trend, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everybody who works in it,” he added, citing Abraham Lincoln.
Younger moved from a dialogue of the case right into a broadside in opposition to the best way immigration enforcement is utilized in America.
“ICE has nothing no matter to do with felony legislation enforcement and seeks to keep away from the precise felony courts in any respect prices. It’s carrying a civil legislation mandate handed by our Congress and pressed to its furthest attain by the President. Even so, it drapes itself within the public’s understanding of the felony legislation although its ‘warrants’ are however unreviewed orders from an ICE superior and its ‘immigration courts’ are usually not true courts in any respect however hearings earlier than officers who can not problem the authorized interpretations they’re given,” he wrote.
The Division of Homeland Safety responded publicly to Younger’s ruling—sarcastically, by accusing him of harmful speech. “It is disheartening that even after the terrorist assault and up to date arrests of rioters with weapons outdoors of ICE services, this decide decides to stoke the embers of hatred,” division spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin stated in a assertion, accusing Younger of “smearing and demonizing federal legislation enforcement.”
