[[link removed]]

REAGAN-APPOINTED JUDGE CALLS OUT TRUMP’S ‘FULL-THROATED ASSAULT
ON THE FIRST AMENDMENT’  
[[link removed]]


 

Jacob Knutson
September 30, 2025
Democracy Docket
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

_ The Reagan-appointed judge's opinion was remarkable in its candid
assessment of the Trump administration’s effort to squelch political
speech in general — not just on college campuses — and Trump’s
autocratic tendencies as a leader. _

,

 

A judge Tuesday issued an extraordinary 161-page rebuke
[[link removed]] of
President Donald Trump while finding that the U.S. government
impermissibly violated the First Amendment by targeting
pro-Palestinian student activists for deportation.

U.S. District Judge Bill Young’s ruling was the long-anticipated
result of a lawsuit brought by university professors who alleged that
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Department of Homeland Security Kristi
Noem and other Trump officials intentionally violated First Amendment
speech protections to chill pro-Palestine campus speech.

Young, based in Massachusetts, agreed with the plaintiffs, finding
that by explicitly targeting pro-Palestinian student activists like
Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk for deportation, the Trump
administration sought to “strike fear” into similarly situated
non-citizen students and stifle political activity it disagrees with.

Young, 85, who has been on the bench for four decades after being
appointed by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1985, said the case was
“perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of
this district court.”

The constitutional question before Young was whether non-citizens
lawfully present in the country have the same free speech rights as
U.S. citizens. 

Young ruled “unequivocally” they do.

“‘No law’ means ‘no law,’” Young said, referring to the
text of the First Amendment, which in part states that Congress shall
make no law “abridging the freedom of speech” or “the right of
the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a
redress of grievances.”

Young ruled that the First Amendment could not draw on the Trump
administration’s “invidious distinction” between citizens and
non-citizens, which the judge said “is not to be found in our
history or jurisprudence.”

“No one’s freedom of speech is unlimited, of course, but these
limits are the same for both citizens and non-citizens alike,” he
wrote. 

“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.”

Intimidating non-citizen students, Young noted in a footnote, was just
one aspect of the Trump administration’s “full-throated assault on
the First Amendment across the board under the cover of an
unconstitutionally broad definition of Anti-Semitism.”

Though he found that the government violated the First Amendment,
Young for now held off on ordering changes to administration policies.
The judge said he would hold additional proceedings to secure relief
that goes beyond ordering public officials to “cease and desist in
the future.” He warned, however, that given Trump and the “rapidly
changing nature of the Executive Branch under Article II of our
Constitution,” a remedy might not be obtainable. 

Young’s opinion was remarkable in its candid assessment of the Trump
administration’s effort to squelch political speech in general —
not just on college campuses — and Trump’s autocratic tendencies
as a leader.

“Behold President Trump’s successes in limiting free speech –
law firms cower, institutional leaders in higher education meekly
appease the President, media outlets from huge conglomerates to small
niche magazines mind the bottom line rather than the ethics of
journalism.”

The judge included in his ruling a 12-page assessment of the president
himself, saying that Trump routinely ignores the Constitution, laws,
regulations and customs while governing but will readily and
aggressively deploy the legal system against those who stand in his
way.

“Now that he is our duly elected President after a full and fair
election, he not only enjoys broad immunity from any personal
liability, he is prepared to deploy all the resources of the nation
against obstruction,” Young wrote. “Daunting prospect, isn’t
it?”

Young also heavily chided Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE)
officials for routinely wearing masks while carrying out
immigration-related arrests. Masked agents arrested both Khalil
[[link removed]] and Öztürk
[[link removed]] earlier this year.

“ICE goes masked for a single reason — to terrorize Americans into
quiescence,” Young wrote. “To us, masks are associated with
cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history
we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on in
this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and
everyone who works in it.”

At the very top of the opinion, before even listing the parties
involved in the case, Young included a copy of an anonymous
handwritten postcard his chambers recently received.

“Trump has pardons and tanks, what do you have?” the postcard
read.

In reply, Young stated, “Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty.
Together, We the People of the United States — you and me — have
our magnificent Constitution.”

“Here’s how that works out in a specific case,” the judge added.

The rest of the opinion served as a response to the anonymous
postcard. At the end, the judge thanked the anonymous writer and
invited them to “stop in at the Courthouse and watch your fellow
citizens, sitting as jurors, reach out for justice.”

“It is here, and in courthouses just like this one, both state and
federal, spread throughout our land that our Constitution is most
vibrantly alive,” Young wrote.

_Jacob Knutson [[link removed]]
is a reporter at Democracy Docket and covers anti-Trump accountability
litigation. He is from South Dakota and earned a bachelor’s degree
in journalism, English and political science from Augustana
University. Before joining Democracy Docket, he covered breaking news
at Axios._

_Founded in 2020, Democracy Docket [[link removed]]
is the leading digital news and information platform covering voting
rights, elections, and the courts — from an unapologetically
pro-democracy standpoint. Through our comprehensive coverage, we’re
committed to the fight to protect and strengthen U.S. democracy at a
time when it faces grave dangers._

* Donald Trump
[[link removed]]
* First Amendment
[[link removed]]
* Freedom of Speech
[[link removed]]

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
*
[[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web
[[link removed]]

Submit via email
Frequently asked questions
[[link removed]]
Manage subscription
[[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org
[[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]