Trial begins in AAUP, Columbia Knight Institute lawsuit against Trump deportation policy
The left-leaning American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has joined with an institution at Columbia University to fight the Trump administration’s deportations of pro-Palestine student activists.
Columbia’s Knight First Amendment Institute filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration in March and the trial began with opening statements on July 7.
The left-leaning American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has joined with an institution at Columbia University to fight the Trump administration’s deportations of pro-Palestine student activists.
Columbia’s Knight First Amendment Institute filed the lawsuit against the Trump administration in March, joining with the AAUP, the AAUP chapters of Harvard University, New York University, and Rutgers University, as well as the Middle East Studies Association. The trial began with opening statements on July 7, according to The Columbia Daily Spectator.
So far, witnesses have testified about how they reacted to the arrests of Mahmoud Khalil and Rümeysa Öztürk.
The plaintiff’s opening statement reportedly criticized the Trump administration’s “cross-government effort to target, arrest, and deport noncitizens for pro-Palestinian speech,” saying it could chill anti-Israel advocacy.
An attorney for the government said in opening statement that issues of “national security, foreign policy, [and] immigration enforcement” are also important to consider.
In their suit, the plaintiffs allege that the Trump administration’s “ideological deportation” policy, which opposes non-citizens who participate in anti-Israel demonstrations, violates the First Amendment.
“[T]he speech targeted by the policy—criticism of Israel’s policies, criticism of our own government’s policies relating to the Middle East, and advocacy of Palestinian rights—is ‘at the core of what the First Amendment is designed to protect,’” the plaintiffs asserted in their pre-trial brief, filed July 1.
Campus Reform has reported that Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestine activist and former Columbia University graduate student, was recently released from ICE detention after a federal judge ruled his arrest unlawful.
Khalil, who had been detained for over 100 days after participating in pro-Hamas protests, has pledged to continue his anti-Israel activism despite the risk of future detention.
A majority of Americans have expressed support for President Donald Trump’s crackdown on anti-Semitism.
An April poll conducted by the Israel on Campus Coalition identified that 66 percent of adults and 56 percent of college students “support cutting federal funding to colleges and universities that fail to protect Jewish students or address antisemitism decisively.”
Campus Reform has reported that AAUP’s president described the 2024 election results as “disappointing” and vowed to work against the Trump administration’s policies.
In March, AAUP sued the Trump administration over its decision to freeze $400 million in federal funding to Columbia University over anti-Semitism concerns.
In June, the University of Virginia’s AAUP chapter defended Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) practices at the school amid its rollback of the policy.
Campus Reform has contacted the American Association of University Professors for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
