In an extraordinarily rare moment in modern American politics, I find myself not angry at a geriatric man in power.
In Boston’s federal district court on Thursday, the Reagan-appointed, 84-year-old U.S. District Judge William Young slammed the Trump administration for bludgeoning the First Amendment. Along with calling the president an “authoritarian” and accusing his administration of engaging in an “unconstitutional conspiracy to pick off certain people,” he declared the administration has excluded “from participation everyone who doesn’t agree with them.” Forgive the creeping smirk on my face.
“Talking straight here,” he said, “the big problem in this case is that the Cabinet secretaries and ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment.” (Wow! News! To! Me!)
Young delivered the biting remarks during a hearing stemming from a case last summer, in which five academic organizations sued on behalf of five international students who protested in support of Palestine (including Mahmoud Khalil and Rumeysa Öztürk). All five students were arrested by ICE and threatened with deportation. In his landmark ruling in September, Young declared it was, indeed, unconstitutional for senior administration officials to deliberately try to arrest and deport international students for their views. (Unfortunately, also on Thursday, a Pennsylvania appellate court overturned a separate ruling on Khalil’s case, thus reopening the door for his arrest.) At the time, Young called the case “perhaps the most important ever to fall within the jurisdiction of this district court.”
“These cabinet secretaries have failed in their sworn duty to uphold the Constitution,” Young said at the hearing, in pointed remarks to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “I find it breathtaking that I have been compelled on the evidence to find the conduct of such high-level officers of our government—cabinet secretaries—conspired to infringe the First Amendment rights of people with such rights here in the United States.” God, it’s really bad when a Reagan-vetted official thinks you’re shit.
Young will deliver his formal ruling next week, which will determine what exactly should be done about the administration’s violations. But during the hearing, the Justice Department more or less argued that it’s not within his prerogative to enforce his ruling—and when DOJ Attorney Paul Stone said “there isn’t any remedy that the court can offer,” Young replied, “You’re telling me there is no remedy!?” (My thoughts exactly.)
Naturally, Team Trump has resorted to throwing temper tantrums. On Thursday night, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told the Washington Post via email that “it’s bizarre that this judge is broadcasting his intent to engage in left-wing activism against the democratically-elected President of the United States,” and DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin added, also by email, that “there is no room in the United States for the rest of the world’s terrorist sympathizers.”
God help us.
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