Judge calls on Americans to ‘stand up’ to Trump in 161-page admonishment

A federal judge tried to rally anti-Trump resistance with a blistering ruling Tuesday that denounced the president as “scandalous,” found that his executive actions had violated the First Amendment rights of immigrants, and called on Americans to “stand up” and defend the Constitution.

In a 161-page admonishment, Senior Judge William G. Young, a Reagan appointee to the court in Boston, unloaded on President Trump, the Homeland Security Department, the State Department and many of the president’s actions.

The judge derided U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a runaway agency that lets its officers wear masks to “terrorize Americans into quiescence.”

“To us, masks are associated with cowardly desperados and the despised Ku Klux Klan. In all our history we have never tolerated an armed masked secret police. Carrying on in this fashion, ICE brings indelible obloquy to this administration and everyone who works in it,” the judge wrote.

He said Mr. Trump has supported efforts of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to deport pro-Palestinian immigrants.

“The facts prove that the president himself approves truly scandalous and unconstitutional suppression of free speech on the part of two of his senior Cabinet secretaries,” Judge Young wrote.

He approvingly quoted his wife’s complaints about the president, who said, “He seems to be winning. He ignores everything and keeps bullying ahead.”

The judge complained about the lack of resistance of law firms that “cower,” universities that “meekly appease,” and media outlets that “mind the bottom line rather than the ethics of journalism.”

He also complained about fellow federal judges who were “complicit in chilling would-be litigants.”

He offered disgusted acknowledgement of Mr. Trump’s political gifts, calling him the “master communicator of our time,” albeit in service of an evil end.

“If change is a mark of success, President Trump is the most successful president in history,” he said.

He added: “The president’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech.”

At another point, he quoted President Reagan’s line that freedom is “never more than one generation away from extinction.”

“As I’ve read and re-read the record in this case, listened widely, and reflected extensively, I’ve come to believe that President Trump truly understands and appreciates the full import of President Reagan’s inspiring message — yet I fear he has drawn from it a darker, more cynical message,” he said. “I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected.”

The case stems from a challenge by academics and activists who said their speech was chilled because they feared the government would target them with immigration actions.

Judge Young recounted some of the high-profile cases that have played out, including that of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian who has been ordered deported for misleading on his green card application but who is battling in the courts, and of Rumeysa Ozturk, who co-wrote an op-ed complaining about her university’s ties to Israel.

He ruled as a matter of law that noncitizens have the same First Amendment rights as citizens. He said those have been violated by the State Department’s move to revoke visas and the Homeland Security Department’s subsequent deportation efforts for those who aligned themselves with the pro-Palestinian cause.

He declined to rule on a remedy, saying he was unsure what he could impose. He asked for a more detailed briefing.

Judge Young has become a major adversary for Mr. Trump in the courts, overseeing at least a half-dozen cases challenging executive branch actions.

He has ruled against the administration’s attempts to impose new rules on wind energy projects, create a climate working group to rewrite global warming policy, and terminate some National Institutes of Health grants.

The NIH ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court, which partially blocked Judge Young, saying his attempt to balance the harms to both sides was flawed.

Judge Young’s denunciation of ICE echoes the rhetoric of Democratic politicians. Trump officials say the rhetoric has fueled a 1,000% increase in assaults on ICE officers. That culminated with the sniper attack last week on ICE’s Dallas office that killed two migrants and wounded a third.

In particular, he questioned the agency’s law enforcement bona fides.

“ICE has successfully persuaded the public that it is our principal criminal law enforcement agency,” but “ICE has nothing whatever to do with criminal law enforcement and seeks to avoid the actual criminal courts at all costs,” he wrote.

He said ICE carries out a “civil law mandate.”

That’s only partly true. ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations largely focus on arrest and deportation, a civil matter. Homeland Security Investigations, another division within ICE, brings criminal cases, including against gangs, smugglers and child predators.

ICE also has led an effort to track down thousands of illegal immigrant children lost in the government system during the Biden administration.

Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin called Judge Young’s opinion “craven” and said ICE’s use of masks was necessary because of shootings, threats and sharing of officers’ personal information online.

“Our ICE law enforcement should be thanked for risking their lives every day to arrest dangerous criminals. It’s stunning that even after the terrorist attack and recent arrests of rioters with guns outside of ICE facilities, this judge decides to stoke the embers of hatred,” she said.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson took issue with the judge’s suggestion that Mr. Trump operates outside the law.

“The Trump administration’s policies have been consistently upheld by the Supreme Court as lawful despite an unprecedented number of legal challenges and unlawful lower court rulings from far-left liberal activist judges like this one,” she said.

Judge Young began his opinion by quoting from a postcard received in his chambers, where an anonymous writer asked: “Trump has pardons and tanks. … What do you have?”

The judge responded, in his opinion: “Alone, I have nothing but my sense of duty. Together, We the People of the United States — you and me — have our magnificent Constitution.”