By Blake Brittain
(Reuters) -Stanford University’s student newspaper sued the Trump Administration on Wednesday, arguing it has violated the free-speech rights of foreign students by threatening to deport them for writing stories that it considers “anti-American or anti-Israel.”
The Stanford Daily and two unidentified students said in the lawsuit, filed in federal court in California against Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, that foreign students at the Palo Alto, California, school have refused to write about the conflict in the Middle East for fear they could be arrested, detained and deported.
“This pall of fear is incompatible with American liberty,” the lawsuit said. “Our First Amendment stands as a bulwark against the government infringing the inalienable human right to think and speak for yourself.”
Spokespeople for the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“In the United States of America, no one should fear a midnight knock on the door for voicing the wrong opinion,” Stanford Daily attorney Conor Fitzpatrick said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Stanford University said the newspaper is an independent organization and that the school is not part of the lawsuit.
The Trump administration has attempted to deport students who have expressed pro-Palestinian views, calling them antisemitic and extremist sympathizers whose presence in the country was adverse to U.S. foreign policy. Protesters say that the government wrongly conflates their criticism of Israeli actions in Gaza and advocacy for Palestinian rights with antisemitism and extremism.
Judges have ordered the release of some students who the administration arrested and detained without being charged with a crime.
The Stanford Daily said in its lawsuit that the administration has caused its foreign writers to self-censor to avoid being targeted. It argued that the administration’s threats prevent them from “engaging in protected expression like attending protests, using certain slogans, and publicly voicing their true views about American foreign policy, Israel, and Palestine.”
The newspaper asked the court to rule that the U.S. Constitution prevents the government from deporting non-citizens for engaging in free speech.
(Reporting by Blake Brittain in Washington; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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