Judge Accuses Trump, Rubio, and Noem of “Unconstitutional Conspiracy”
A Reagan-appointed federal judge has ruled that the Trump administration’s targeting of pro-Palestinian activists is an “unconstitutional conspiracy.”
U.S. District Judge William Young, appointed by the president Ronald Reagan in 1985, criticized Trump’s draconian crackdown on people like Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk, whose only crimes were openly supporting Palestine, while announcing his intention to issue an order to prevent these types of targeted expulsions from happening again.
“I find it astounding that I have been forced, on the basis of evidence, to conclude that the conduct of senior officials in our government – Cabinet secretaries – conspired to violate the First Amendment rights of people entitled to such rights here in the United States,” Young said. saidreferring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “These cabinet secretaries have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution.”
Young even compared the administration’s broader deportation policy to people catching and returning enslaved African Americans under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
“I asked myself why, how did this happen? How could our own government, the highest officials in our government, seek to violate the rights of people legally here in the United States? And I have come to believe that there is a concept of freedom here that I don’t understand,” he said at the same hearing. “The record in this case convinces me that these senior officials, including the President of the United States, have a fearful view of freedom.”
Young plans to issue a formal ruling next week.
“We used the term ‘authoritarian,’” he says. said. “In this context, I’m not treating this in a pejorative way, and I’m using it carefully, but it’s pretty clear that this president believes, as an authoritarian, that when he speaks, everyone, everyone in Article II, is absolutely going to toe the line.”
