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A federal judge in Massachusetts used a First Amendment case to take the Trump administration back to civics class in a 161-page opinion that answers the question of whether non-citizens have the right to free speech with a booming “yes.”
U.S. District Judge William G. Young offered page after page of searing criticism for both the president and those who fail to hold him accountable for his actions, which he found “scandalous” and “unconstitutional.”
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In a highly unusual move, Young copied a postcard from a supporter of the president that had apparently been sent to the court from the Philadelphia area: “TRUMP HAS PARDONS AND TANKS …. WHAT DO YOU HAVE?”
Young addressed the entire opinion to the writer of the postcard, preempting the opinion with his reply: “Dear Mr. or Ms. Anonymous, Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, We the People of the United States — you and me — have our magnificent Constitution.”
The case was brought by a collection of university professors’ groups in objection to President Donald Trump’s crackdown on pro-Palestinian activism, labeled antisemitic by the administration.
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Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have threatened to use their powers to revoke the visas of students who show peaceful support for Palestinians, and have, in some cases, done so, essentially creating two tiers of speech rights: one for citizens and a lesser one for non-citizens.
After a hearing and nine-day bench trial, Young found that Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and their subordinates worked to chill free-speech rights “deliberately and with purposeful aforethought.”
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Young wrote that the case is “perhaps the most important to ever fall within” his court’s jurisdiction, presenting the issue of “whether non-citizens lawfully present here in United States actually have the same free speech rights as the rest of us.”
“The Court answers this Constitutional question unequivocally ‘yes, they do.’ ‘No law’ means ‘no law,’” Young wrote, quoting the text of the First Amendment.
“The First Amendment does not draw President Trump’s invidious distinction and it is not to be found in our history or jurisprudence,” he said.
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When a ruling goes against him, Trump often complains that the judge is unfairly moved by the ideology of the president who appointed him or her. In this case, the judge was appointed to his post by President Ronald Reagan in 1985 — Trump has a large painting of Reagan hanging in the Oval Office.
Young went on to make it very clear that Trump’s administration is carrying out an unconstitutional policy.
However, he also appeared discouraged by the current political environment. He spent many pages lamenting how Trump is running with unchecked power because institutions are cowering before him.
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″[T]he facts prove that the President himself approves truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech on the part of two of his senior cabinet secretaries. One would imagine that the corrective would follow as a matter of course from the appropriate authorities,” he wrote. “Yet nothing will happen … Nor will there be any meaningful public outcry.”
Young skewered Immigration and Customs Enforcement for telling the public its officers are deporting the “worst of the worst” immigrants but using civil procedure that does not require a jury to weigh the evidence.
In a particularly stinging section, he condemned the agency over its agents’ use of masks to shield their identities, rejecting Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons’ justification as “disingenuous, squalid and dishonorable.”
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“ICE goes masked for a single reason — to terrorize Americans into quiescence,” Young wrote. “Small wonder ICE often seems to need our respected military to guard them as they go about implementing our immigration laws. It should be noted that our troops do not ordinarily wear masks.”
“Can you imagine a masked marine? It is a matter of honor — and
honor still matters,” he continued. “To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on in this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it.”
On more than one occasion, Young appeared to criticize the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision issued last year by pointing out that, as president, Trump now enjoys broad immunity for his actions.
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“Behold President Trump’s successes in limiting free speech — law firms
cower, institutional leaders in higher education meekly appease the President, media outlets from huge conglomerates to small niche magazines mind the bottom line rather than the ethics of journalism,” Young wrote.
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