In response to a lawsuit filed by the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, which represents hundreds of professors and students across the country, District Court Judge William Young ruled in favor of pro-Palestinian protesters being free to exercise their freedom of expression. their freedom of expression in the United States, including Syrian Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil and Turkish Tufts University student Rumeysa Ozturk.

The judge's ruling indicates that Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security; and Marco Antonio Rubio, Secretary of State, unconstitutionally violated the rights of foreign protesters by threatening them with deportation simply for expressing their pro-Palestinian views.

“This Court finds by clear and convincing evidence that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, together with subordinate officials and agents of each of them, willfully and knowingly concerted their actions and those of their two departments to intentionally stifle the rights of non-citizen plaintiffs who are members of Plaintiffs' associations to free speech and peaceful assembly,” according to part of a document written by Young.

In July, a non-jury trial was held, and information emerged about how the government vetted more than 5,000 people named on the doxing website Canary Mission, a site that has been publishing the personal information of students, professors, and organizations deemed anti-Semitic for more than a decade.

In this regard, the judge also He blames officials Noem and Rubio for creating an atmosphere of fear aimed at discouraging other students from participating in pro-Palestinian protests, but emphasizes that both politicians were always clear that they would not deport all foreign students.

“It was never the Secretaries' immediate attempt to deport all pro-Palestinian aliens for that blatant First Amendment violation, which could have provoked widespread outrage.

Rather, the Secretaries' intent was more odious: to persecute a select few for speaking out, and then to use the full force of the Immigration and Nationality Act (as has never been done before) to publicly deport them in order to suppress pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorize similarly situated pro-Palestinian (and other) aliens into silence because their views were unwelcome,” their order states.