In a landmark opinion, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday that the Trump administration unconstitutionally targeted noncitizens for pro-Palestine advocacy, in violation of the First Amendment and with the aim of suppressing critiques of Israel.

Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee to the federal court in Massachusetts, found that Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, along with their subordinates, “acted in concert to misuse the sweeping powers of their respective offices to target noncitizen pro-Palestinians for deportation primarily on account of their First Amendment protected political speech.”

“This is a new invention that in important ways goes beyond its closest analogues in the Red Scare,” Young wrote in his 161-page opinion, calling the case “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court.”

The American Association of University Professors, or AAUP, and the Middle East Studies Association filed a lawsuit against Rubio, Noem, and other Trump administration officials in March, following the arrests of

© The Intercept