U.S. District Judge William Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee who has been on the federal bench in Boston for 40 years, slammed President Donald Trump, along with high-ranking officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, over the deportation of pro-Palestinian activists on campus.
Young did not mince his words when he said that the government was essentially violating the First Amendment, adding, “There was no policy here. What happened here is an unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people.”
Young has been handling the lawsuit, and back in September, he ruled against the administration’s policy, following a two-week trial. Thursday’s hearing was for providing a remedy for the violations.
As reported by Politico, “The judge said he plans to issue a ruling that will grant the plaintiffs a ‘conclusive presumption’ that future changes to their immigration status amount to retaliation for their suit. The ruling will put the onus on the government to prove that officials have good cause before moving forward with any planned changes to group members’ immigration status, the judge said.”
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Young did not hold back on Thursday and said, “We cast around the word ‘authoritarian.’ I don’t, in this context, treat that in a pejorative sense, and I use it carefully, but it’s fairly clear that this president believes, as an authoritarian, that when he speaks, everyone, everyone in Article II is going to toe the line absolutely.”
Moreover, he added, “I find it breathtaking that I have been compelled on the evidence to find the conduct of such high-level officers of our government — cabinet secretaries — conspired to infringe the First Amendment rights of people with such rights here in the United States. These cabinet secretaries have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution.”
It should be noted here that the lawsuit was filed by the American Association of University Professors and its chapters at Harvard, New York University, and Rutgers University, as well as by the Tucson-based nonprofit Middle East Studies Association.
During the trail, the testimonies were mainly focused on testimony focused on the federal government’s arrests of Tufts grad student Rümeysa Öztürk, Mahmoud Khalil, Mohsen Mahdawi, and Yunseo Chung, students at Columbia University; and Badar Khan Suri, a postdoctoral scholar at Georgetown University.
BREAKING: Judge William Young, a Reagan appointee, delivers the most scathing legal rebuke of the Trump era, ruling that Trump and his cabinet illegally targeted pro-Palestinian students for deportation to “strike fear” into First Amendment protesters. https://t.co/i7UCg2A429 pic.twitter.com/S4DcF8zvtr
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) September 30, 2025
During Thursday’s hearing, Young was challenged by Paul F. Stone, the government’s attorney who claimed that the case should be dealt in immigration court and a district court had no rights to provide rulings on cases of deportation.
However, Young rejected the argument, adding, “This case ― perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court ― squarely presents the issue whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.”
The White House was naturally not happy with the way the lawsuit turned out and Spokesperson Anna Kelly said, “it’s bizarre that this judge is broadcasting his intent to engage in left-wing activism against the democratically-elected President of the United States.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin voiced a similar opinion, saying, “Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.”
As Young shreds Trump, Noem, Rubio and other higher ups in the government regarding the violation of the Constitution, their reaction to the same remains to be seen.
