As The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, “a federal judge lambasted the Trump administration’s efforts to arrest foreign students living legally in the U.S. over their participation in pro-Palestinian campus protests.”
With photos of President Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Journal article’s subtitle reads: “Reagan administration nominee finds top officials violated the First Amendment by targeting noncitizens over their speech.”
Note: According to the Constitution, noncitizens lawfully in the U.S. have First Amendment free speech rights, so the executive can’t deport them arbitrarily to punish or suppress protected political expression.
A federal judge lambasted the Trump administration’s efforts to arrest foreign students living legally in the U.S. over their participation in pro-Palestinian campus protests https://t.co/geS43BHWh5
— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) September 30, 2025
Several MAGA supporters on social media are defending the Trump administration’s efforts with comments including “violating terms of student visa negates their legal status.”
Numerous commenters on X are characterizing the judge as beholden to Democrats, with many reacting to the ruling by specifically presuming the judge was appointed by President Joe Biden. As one commenter wrote: “Another Activist Judge paid by Democrats imagine that.”
Yet the federal judge who issued the ruling, calling the case a “full-throated assault on the First Amendment,” was Judge William G. Young, nominated in 1984 by Republican President Ronald Reagan to a new seat on the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. Young, 85, was confirmed by the Senate in 1985.
Judge Young is also overseeing a lawsuit filed by 17 Democrat-led states against the Trump administration’s efforts to halt offshore wind energy projects. (Note: Young recently ruled in favor of allowing the Revolution Wind project — off the coast of Rhode Island — to resume construction after the administration issued a stop-work order in August.)
In their complaint, the States’ Attorneys General take issue with a directive President Trump issued upon his return to the Oval Office that “categorically and indefinitely halted all federal approvals necessary for the development
of offshore- and onshore-wind energy” initiatives across the country, scuttling projects nationwide.
“The Wind Directive has stopped most wind-energy development in its tracks,” the filing reads, “despite the fact that wind energy is a homegrown source of reliable, affordable energy that supports hundreds of thousands of jobs, creates billions of dollars in economic activity and tax payments, and supplies more than 10% of the country’s electricity.”
During a recent hearing, Judge Young expressed some skepticism about the effectiveness of even a successful multi-state lawsuit. The judge said: “[Trump’s] view of the presidency is [that] those people who are subordinate to me are going to follow my instructions. That’s the presidency as we know it today.” He added: “Given the president’s view, where does that get you? … He’ll tell [agencies] to deny [permits] and they will, because they have to follow orders.”