FIRE challenged the two statutes the administration weaponized to try and deport Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk
Decision is the first in the country to squarely rule on the constitutionality of these statutes and thus will reverberate in similar proceedings around the country
Judge: ‘Stated plainly, in the United States, freedom of speech belongs to the people. It is not the government’s to take.’
SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 28, 2026 — A federal court ruled on Friday that the provisions Secretary of State Marco Rubio used in an attempt to deport legally present noncitizens for their speech are unconstitutional and violate the First Amendment.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression challenged the provisions in August 2025. The ruling affirms a bedrock constitutional principle: The government cannot punish people for protected speech simply because officials dislike their views.
“In America, free speech doesn’t just belong to the people who say things the government agrees with,” said FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick. “Today’s ruling proves that free speech isn’t a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child.”
Judge Noël Wise of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California wrote in her opinion that “in the United States, freedom of speech belongs to the people. It is not the government’s to take.”
“Foundational to America’s enduring democracy are our freedoms of speech and the press embodied in the First Amendment,” she wrote. “In the United States, free speech, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, is not a sign of our democracy’s fragility. It is evidence of its strength. That strength is diminished when members of our society — citizens and noncitizens alike — must self-censor and ‘behave’ or suffer the government’s retaliation.”
Rubio and the Trump administration sought to use immigration law to target foreign university students and others for deportation based on protected speech like writing op-eds and attending protests. Their attack suppressed the speech of noncitizens, who worried that voicing the “wrong” opinion about America or Israel will result in deportation. Today’s decision means that the noncitizen writers and editors of Stanford Daily, and Jane Doe, may not have their visas revoked or be deported based on protected speech. And it is the first ruling in the country to squarely rule on the constitutionality of these statutes and thus will reverberate in similar proceedings around the country, including those of Mahmoud Khalil and Moshen Mahdawi.
Noncitizens in the United States have First Amendment rights. . .
For the complete article, go to https://go.fire.org/webmail/869921/1982619597/63fb3e3a1580f6dd539fab8a2647d17e38b723a148151199345f96a87ce195ec