On March 25, 2025, the Knight Institute filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian activism. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP), AAUP’s Harvard, NYU, and Rutgers campus chapters, and the Middle East Studies Association, argues that the policy chills noncitizens from speaking and, by extension, robs these organizations and their U.S. citizen members of noncitizens’ perspectives on a matter of significant public debate.

The lawsuit responds to a climate of repression and fear on university campuses. Federal agencies are attempting to deport multiple individuals for their pro-Palestinian advocacy, including Mahmoud Khalil, a leader of protests at Columbia University. These actions have sent chills through the community of noncitizen students and faculty on campuses around the country, causing some to pull out of academic conferences, stay home from protests, and withdraw from other forms of public advocacy and engagement.

The lawsuit alleges that the administration’s policy of ideological deportation violates the First Amendment right of the plaintiffs to hear from and associate with noncitizen students and faculty, that it is unconstitutionally vague, and that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The suit seeks a court order declaring that the policy is unlawful and enjoining the federal government from enforcing it.

On September 30, 2025, following a two-week trial in the case, the district court issued its findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court held that the defendant officials pursued a policy of arresting, detaining, and deporting noncitizen students and faculty who engaged in pro-Palestinian protest, that the purpose of this policy was to chill pro-Palestinian speech and speech critical of Israel, and that the policy is impermissibly viewpoint discriminatory in violation the First Amendment and contrary to constitutional right and arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act. 

Status: On January 22, 2025, Judge Young issued an order formally declaring that the Trump administration’s policy of arresting, detaining, and threatening to deport noncitizen students and faculty for their political speech violates the First Amendment and the APA. The order also voids and sets aside the policy under the APA. It further provides as a remedial sanction that, in any district court case in which a noncitizen who was an AAUP or MESA member during this litigation challenges an adverse change to their immigration status, that adverse change will be presumed to have been taken in retaliation for that individual’s constitutionally protected speech, unless the government demonstrates otherwise by clear and convincing evidence.

Case Information: American Association of University Professors v. Rubio, No. 1:25-cv-10685 (D.Mass), 25-1658 (1st Cir.).