The Volokh Conspiracy

Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent

About The Volokh Conspiracy Editorial Independence Who we are Books Volokh Daily Email Archives Search DMCA RSS

Free Speech

Federal Court Rules Speech-Based Deportations Violate the First Amendment

The decision goes further than other similar recent rulings.

Ilya Somin | 8.29.2026 5:34 PM

NA

Yesterday, in Stanford Daily Publishing Corp. v. Rubio, federal district Judge Noel Wise ruled that speech-based deportations of non-citizens violate the First Amendment. The decision is similar to previous rulings on recent Trump Administration efforts to deport non-citizen academics and students for speech the administration officials object to. But this one goes somewhat further in ruling that the statutes the administration is relying on are themselves unconstitutional, because they grant the Secretary of State nearly unlimited power to deport non-citizens if he deems their speech to be somehow adverse to a "compelling" US "foreign policy interest." Judge Wise's reasoning is similar to that of the the late Judge Maryanne Trump Barry (Donald Trump's sister), who  ruled in 1996 that one of these laws was unconstitutional because of its extreme vagueness.

Here is an excerpt from yesterday's ruling:

 [T]he Challenged Portion of the Deportation Provision is an intentionally broad delegation providing the Secretary of State leeway to suppress opinions that he deems harmful to foreign policy. The Secretary of State has wide latitude to enforce the provision with no limiting principles on how enforcement priorities........

© Reason.com