Government’s bid to deport students tests First Amendment rights

04:31 |

The Daily Docket

A newsletter by Reuters and Westlaw

By Shruthi Krishnamurthy

Good morning. A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit is set to hear the Trump administration's appeal to re-detain two university students targeted for deportation over their involvement in pro-Palestinian activism. Meanwhile, Novartis and AbbVie are seeking to block the enforcement of a new Rhode Island drug-pricing law. Plus, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that DLA Piper must face part of a lawsuit over pregnancy bias. Here's a white dwarf that guzzled a Pluto-like world. Ready for Tuesday? Let's go!

Court to hear Trump bid to re-detain students over pro-Palestinian activism

Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi poses for a portrait in Columbia University. New York City, New York, U.S., May 18, 2025. REUTERS/Ryan Murphy

The 2nd Circuit will hear arguments in the Trump administration's bid to re-detain Rumeysa Ozturk and Mohsen Mahdawi, university students whom the government is seeking to deport over their participation in pro-Palestinian activism. Here's what to know:

Ozturk, a Tufts University student from Turkey, was arrested in March after co-writing an opinion piece criticizing her school's response to Israel's war in Gaza. In May, U.S. District Judge William Sessions in Vermont ordered her immediate release after she was held for over six weeks in an immigration detention center in Louisiana.
"Based on patterns we are seeing across the country, her exercising her free speech rights appears to have played a role in her detention," said Mahsa Khanbabai, Ozturk's lawyer. Read more here.
Mahdawi, a Columbia University student who grew up in a refugee camp in the West Bank, was arrested in April over his participation in pro-Palestinian protests.
After two weeks in detention, Mahdawi walked out of the federal courthouse in Burlington, Vermont, following an order by U.S. District Judge Geoffrey Crawford that he be released. "Even if he were a firebrand, his conduct is protected by the First Amendment," Crawford wrote. More on that here.
Trump administration officials have said student visa and green card holders are subject to deportation over their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza, calling their actions a threat to U.S. foreign policy.
The case before the 2nd Circuit, likely destined for the U.S. Supreme Court, could challenge the long-held understanding that non-citizens in the U.S. lawfully have the same First Amendment rights as U.S. citizens. Read the opinion.

Coming up today

Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will appear before the House Oversight Committee in a closed interview regarding the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Novartis and AbbVie will urge a federal judge in Rhode Island to block enforcement of a new state drug-pricing law that bars insurers, pharmacy benefits managers and other payors from engaging in discriminatory practices against health care providers like hospitals that buy discounted medications through the federal 340B Drug Pricing Program.
The chief executives of low-cost carriers Allegiant Airlines and Frontier Airlines will testify before a U.S. Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee on air carrier competition.
A hearing is scheduled before Judge Randolph Moss in D.C. in a case in which NPR is seeking to block the Corporation for Public Broadcasting from awarding a $57.9 million grant to a new consortium of public media institutions to operate the satellite system connecting the public radio network for the next five years.

Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.

More top news

Industry insight

DLA Piper must face part of a lawsuit brought by one of its former U.S. lawyers who claimed she was fired for seeking maternity leave, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in Manhattan ruled. Read the order.
Rachael Rollins, the former top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, has agreed to be publicly reprimanded by state bar regulators, two years after she resigned ahead of the release of two federal government watchdog reports that found she engaged in multiple ethics violations. More on that here.
Texas is poised to end its reliance on the American Bar Association for law school oversight and instead let its highest court determine which schools' graduates can be admitted as lawyers in the state. Read more here.
New York-based law firm Wigdor has resolved a lawsuit over client fees brought by an attorney who represented sex abuse claimants in a settlement with Columbia University and Columbia-affiliated hospitals. Find out more.
Moves: Six attorneys from Burns, Figa & Will, including environmental partner Scott Clark and corporate partners Victoria Bantz, Theresa Mehringer and Andrea Welter, joined Clark Hill … Lindsey Greer Dotson, a former assistant US attorney for the central district of California and chief of the criminal division, joined O'Melveny as a white collar partner … Moses Singer added litigation partner Michael Simes from Simes Law.

$24.5 million

That's how much YouTube said it would pay to settle a lawsuit that President Trump brought against the company over the suspension of his account following the January 2021 U.S. Capitol riots. Read more.

In the courts

The 1st Circuit allowed the U.S. Department of Education to proceed with plans to lay off civil rights staffers. The court lifted an injunction the Trump administration said a judge left in place in defiance of a U.S. Supreme Court decision pausing an earlier order he issued preventing broader job cuts. Read the order.
The DOJ is suing pro-Palestinian organizations and demonstrators it accuses of intimidating Jewish worshipers at a New Jersey synagogue, using a U.S. law that has traditionally been used against people blocking access to abortion clinics. Read the complaint.
Apple and Amazon won a ruling dismissing a consumer antitrust lawsuit in Seattle federal court that accused them of conspiring to inflate prices of iPhones and iPads sold on Amazon's platform. Read the order.
Charlie Javice, the entrepreneur convicted for defrauding JPMorgan Chase, into buying her college financial aid startup Frank for $175 million, was sentenced to just over seven years in prison. Read more here.

Column: Amazon's $2.5 billion payout and a little-known law called ROSCA

When Amazon last week agreed to pay $2.5 billion mid-trial to settle allegations by the FTC that it duped customers into signing up for Prime, the payout showcased what until recently had been regarded as a law of little consequence. Not anymore. Jenna Greene, in her latest column, looks at what's behind the agency's increased use of the Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act, or ROSCA, and the companies that remain on the hot seat. Read more in On the Case.

Attorney Analysis

Jeffrey Morton of Haynes Boone examines the recent changes at the USPTO in patent practice affecting prosecution timing and the potential impact on due diligence for life sciences companies. Read today's Attorney Analysis.

Contact

Caitlin Tremblay

caitlin.tremblay@thomsonreuters.com

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