A Boston judge issues a blistering warning over free speech under Trump

Why it matters: The exchange came in what Young called perhaps the biggest case the Boston federal court has faced. And he shared it in a blistering 161-page ruling blasting the Trump administration for what he called attacks on the Constitution.

State of play: The ruling, issued by Young this week, affirms international students' rights to free speech despite the administration's efforts to deport them.

Catch up quick: A professors union and student groups sued the Trump administration over its efforts to detain and deport immigrants who expressed pro-Palestinian views.

• Rümeysa Öztürk, a doctoral student at Tufts University, became part of the lawsuit after she was detained for six weeks over a pro-Palestinian op-ed she co-wrote in the Tufts Daily.
• The government's attorneys argued that immigrants don't have the same free speech protections as U.S. citizens.

Driving the news: Young's ruling this week rejected the attorneys' argument, calling the State and Homeland Security departments' moves unconstitutional attacks on political speech and saying President Trump's support for this strategy violates his duties as president to defend the Constitution.

• Trump's executive orders effectively singled out pro-Palestine speech "for a campaign of speech-chilling retribution" under the guise of combating antisemitism and hate speech, Young wrote.

Friction point: Young predicted his ruling wouldn't stop the Trump administration, which the judge says has balked at critical rulings in the past and has upped the president's campaign to curb free speech.

• Case in point: Trump blasted Boston federal judge Allison Burroughs on Truth Social this summer while she oversaw hearings on a Harvard lawsuit against the administration.

What they're saying: The Trump administration plans to appeal Young's ruling, says White House spokesperson Liz Huston. She called the decision an "outrageous ruling that hampers the safety and security of our nation."

Zoom in: Young likened mask-wearing immigration agents to KKK members and "cowardly desperados," noting that even the military doesn't shield soldiers with masks.

• He said that the federal employees who reviewed immigration officials' requests to revoke students' visas — and raised concerns about insufficient evidence — were "true patriots" who were "weaponized by their highest superiors to reach foregone conclusions for most ignoble ends."

Threat level: This is bigger than deploying the Homeland Security and State departments to target a small group of immigrants, Young wrote.

• If those agencies can be used to curb free speech rights, he wrote, then the IRS, Social Security Administration and Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. can be "unconstitutionally weaponized" against Trump's enemies, even though "political persecution is anathema to our Constitution and everything for which America stands."

The other side: "The President is a staunch supporter and defender of First Amendment rights, but violent riots and student harassment are not protected speech," Huston, the White House spokesperson, said in a statement.

• Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary in the Department of Homeland Security, criticized Young for "smearing and demonizing ICE law enforcement, likening them to terrorists" less than a week after the attack targeting the ICE facility in Dallas.
• Officers face "an unprecedented surge in assaults and doxxing," McLaughlin tells Axios, saying they're being "stalked and targeted by not just violent rioters, but the dangerous criminals who they work to get off of America's streets: terrorists, MS-13, Tren de Aragua and criminal rings."

What's next: Young plans to issue a separate decision on what relief, "if any," the court can offer those who sued the Trump administration.