A US appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain a Georgetown University scholar who advocated for Palestinian rights. Badar Khan Suri, an Indian citizen and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, was arrested by immigration authorities in March 2025.

Background

Suri had been a vocal advocate for Palestinian rights and had spoken out against Israel’s war in Gaza. The Trump administration had pursued a campaign to detain and deport foreign nationals who had engaged in pro-Palestinian activism on their college campuses.

A 2-1 panel of the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal immigration law did not bar a lower-court judge from ordering Suri’s release after hearing his claims that his detention violated his due process and free speech rights under the US Constitution.

The court’s decision is a significant victory for Suri and other pro-Palestinian activists who have faced detention and deportation under the Trump administration. The ruling suggests that the government cannot detain individuals solely based on their speech and associations, and that lower-court judges have the authority to hear challenges to allegedly unconstitutional detention.

Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.