Judge warns Trump against witness 'retribution' in First Amendment case over threatened deportations
Source: Law & Crime
Jul 1st, 2025, 11:24 am
A long-tenured federal judge issued a stark warning to the Trump administration ahead of a bench trial concerning a First Amendment challenge, cautioning the government from pursuing any punishing tactics against witnesses.
In an order denying additional discovery ahead of a looming July 7 trial date, Boston-based Senior U.S. District Judge William G. Young, a Ronald Reagan appointee, underscored that the court is a "safe place" and "[a]ny retribution from any quarter by anyone will be met with the full rigor of the Court's resources."
Young is presiding over the case brought in March by academic advocacy organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, challenging the Trump administration's stated intention "to carry out large-scale arrests, detentions, and deportations of noncitizen students and faculty who participate in pro-Palestinian protests and other related expression and association." The plaintiffs argue such demonstrations are a part of their First Amendment rights — and the federal government's "campaign of coercive threats to arrest, detain, and deport noncitizen students and faculty based on their pro-Palestinian expression and association" directly violates the Constitution.
A trial considering the First Amendment case will begin on July 7, and in the preceding days, Young has sought to establish ground rules. By warning the Trump administration — and everyone else — that any "retribution" against witnesses or other parties will be punished, he also maintained that any such acts of intimidation would "prove" the plaintiffs' very point.
Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/the-full-rigor-of-the-courts-resources-judge-warns-trump-against-witness-retribution-in-first-amendment-case-over-threatened-deportations/
Full headline: 'The full rigor of the Court's resources': Judge warns Trump against witness 'retribution' in First Amendment case over threatened deportations
Link to ORDER (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25987064-judge-young-no-intimidation/
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25987064/judge-young-no-intimidation.pdf
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Rigor Mortis? 
