Judge declares Rubio’s speech-based student deportations violate the Constitution

Northern District of California Judge Noël Wise, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, sided with the Stanford Daily in its suit against Secretary of State Marco Rubio.


U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with members of the media before departing for Bahrain International Airport after his visit to the Middle East, in Manama, Bahrain, June 25, 2026. | Pool photo by Eric Lee

By Gregory Svirnovskiy and Ben Johansen08/29/2026 12:58 PM EDT | Updated: 08/29/2026 05:06 PM EDT

A federal judge on Friday declared that the Trump administration’s efforts to deport noncitizens for political speech run counter to the Constitution’s First and Fifth Amendments, the latest legal rebuke of the White House’s expansive immigration agenda.
Northern District of California Judge Noël Wise, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, sided with the Stanford Daily, which sued Secretary of State Marco Rubio, arguing that his use of the Immigration and Nationality Act to deport noncitizen students had foreign students refraining from writing opinion pieces critical of the administration.

”In the United States, freedom of speech belongs to the people,” Wise wrote in her opinion. “It is not the government’s to take.”

Another plaintiff was an unnamed woman who is a lawful noncitizen in the U.S. who was previously in the country on a student visa at a school that was not Stanford and “has refrained from publishing and voicing her true opinions regarding Palestine and Israel and has deleted a social media account to guard against retaliation for past expression,” according to court documents.
“Here you can simultaneously hate the content of a person’s speech and love the country that cherishes the freedom to allow it,” Wise wrote. “Zealous protection of our Constitutional right to free speech is a provocative demonstration of our country’s powerful lack of fear.”
A State Department spokesperson, given anonymity to discuss internal thought processes within the agency, told POLITICO that the U.S. “is under no obligation to admit or suffer the presence of individuals who subvert our laws and deny our citizens their Constitutional rights.”
“More broadly, the Department of State is committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” the spokesperson said. “A visa is a privilege, not a right.”
The ruling comes after the administration’s campaign last year to revoke visas and seek the deportations of foreign students involved in the pro-Palestinian movement. Among those subjected to deportation proceedings were Columbia University activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi, Tufts University doctoral grad Rümeysa Öztürk and Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri.
Khalil, a green card holder, was detained for more than three months after leading pro-Palestinian protests on his campus. Mahdawi, also a lawful permanent resident, was arrested after he appeared for a citizenship interview. Öztürk was detained by masked agents in Boston after the State Department revoked her student visa because of an op-ed she co-authored criticizing her school’s response to the war in Gaza.
The cases became part of a broader legal and political fight over the administration’s efforts to crack down on campus activism they viewed as not aligned with their foreign policy.

The administration argued their presence could harm U.S. foreign policy. The students and their lawyers responded by saying they were being punished for constitutionally protected free speech.
The detentions also prompted protests and pushback from Democratic lawmakers. Demonstrators rallied in New York and Massachusetts demanding the release of Khalil and Öztürk, while members of Congress pressed the administration over its actions toward the students.
“In America, free speech doesn’t just belong to the people who say things the government agrees with,” said Conor Fitzpatrick, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which sued Rubio on behalf of the Stanford Daily.
“Today’s ruling proves that free speech isn’t a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child,” he said in a statement.


Judge declares Rubio’s speech-based student deportations violate the Constitution - POLITICO