Judge rules Trump administration violated the First Amendment in fight against ICE-tracking
Jorge L. Alonso, a federal district court judge for the Northern District of Illinois, said the Trump administration violated the First Amendment by pressuring Facebook and Apple to remove ICE tracking groups and apps. Judge Alonso granted the plaintiffs, Kassandra Rosado, who runs the Facebook group ICE Sightings – Chicagoland, and Kreisau Group, the developers of Eyes Up, a preliminary injunction.
Justice Alonso cited a unanimous Supreme Court decision in a 2024 case pitting the NRA against former New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo. In this case, the court ruled that “[g]government officials cannot attempt to coerce private parties in order to punish or suppress views the government disapproves of,” when Vullo pressured companies to end their business relationships with the NRA. Alonso’s decision goes on to say: “Here, [Pam] Bondi and [Kristi] That’s exactly what Noem did. They contacted Facebook and Apple and demanded, rather than requested, that Facebook and Apple censor the complainant’s speech.”
In the case of the ICE Sightings Facebook group, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi bragged to X that an anonymous group “used to dox and target” ICE agents was taken down after the DOJ contacted Meta. Eyes Up, ICEBlock, Red Dot and other similar apps have also been removed from app stores, following pressure from the DOJ and public threats of lawsuits, including from CNN for simply reporting the app’s existence.
It is likely that the government will appeal this decision and that the fight will continue. But the unanimous nature of the precedent set by the Supreme Court in 2024 suggests that the Trump administration faces an uphill battle.
