A federal judge on Friday ruled that laws used to cancel visas and initiate deportation proceedings against noncitizen college students based on their pro-Palestinian advocacy and criticism of Israel are unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Noel Wise, sitting in San Jose, California, chastised the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security for how they had deployed provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act to target non-citizens for expressing views the administration sought to suppress.
Wise, an appointee of Democratic President Joe Biden, wrote that in the United States, free speech — including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders — was evidence of the strength of the country's democracy. "That strength is diminished when members of our society – citizens and noncitizens alike – must self-censor and 'behave' or suffer the government's retaliation," she said.
The ruling centered on actions taken by the Trump administration beginning in March 2025, when it started revoking visas and detaining non-citizens who engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy on campus. The first such arrest was of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil, who is fighting separately to avoid deportation.
The case was brought in August 2025 by The Stanford Daily, Stanford University's student newspaper. The newspaper alleged that some of its writers with student visas had refrained from covering pro-Palestinian student protests and topics related to the Middle East conflict because of the administration's policies. Its lawyers argued that two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act — which allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to render noncitizens deportable if he determined their actions compromised a compelling foreign policy interest, and to revoke visas at his discretion — violated the First and Fifth Amendments as applied to constitutionally protected speech.
Wise agreed with the newspaper that the government was "singling out that speech for disfavored treatment based on its viewpoint or content." She also expressed concern that the administration had moved on to target people for expressing viewpoints it disfavored.
The ruling follows a similar decision last year from Boston-based U.S. District Judge William Young, who found the administration had acted unconstitutionally by adopting a policy of revoking visas, arresting, detaining, and deporting foreign students and faculty engaged in pro-Palestinian advocacy.
Conor Fitzpatrick, of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which represented The Stanford Daily, said the ruling "proves that free speech isn't a privilege, but the inalienable right of every human being." (Reuters) The State Department and DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit was filed in August 2025 by Stanford University's student newspaper, The Stanford Daily, which alleged that some of its writers with student visas had refrained from covering pro-Palestinian student protests and topics related to the Middle East conflict as a result of the administration's policies. The newspaper's lawyers argued that two provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act — which allowed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to render noncitizens deportable if he personally determined their actions compromised a compelling foreign policy interest, and to revoke visas at his discretion — violated the First and Fifth Amendments as applied to constitutionally protected speech.
Wise's ruling focused on the administration's actions beginning in March 2025, starting with the arrest of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil