Judge strikes down Trump visa policy targeting foreign pro-Palestinian university students
The judge said that in the United States, free speech, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, was evidence of the strength of the country's democracy.
A federal judge has ruled that US President Donald Trump's administration's laws that targeted and revoked visas of non-citizen college students for their pro-Palestinian advocacy against Israel are unconstitutional. US District Judge Noel Wise in San Jose, California, criticized the US State Department and Homeland Security for using immigration law to suppress dissenting views.
She emphasized that free speech, including criticizing the government, is a cornerstone of American democracy. The ruling comes after a lawsuit filed by Stanford University's student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, which claimed the administration's policies caused its writers to self-censor their reporting on pro-Palestinian student protests.
The judge agreed, stating that the government was singling out speech for unfavorable treatment based on its viewpoint. The ruling is similar to a previous decision last year by a Boston-based judge who found the administration's actions unconstitutional. Judge Wise expressed concern that the administration might expand its targets to include anyone who exercises their freedom of speech to express opinions the government disfavors, which she described as antithetical to the Constitution.
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