President Donald Trump suffered two legal blows in a matter of hours on Wednesday.
A federal appeals court upheld a judge’s order to bring Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University, from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England. Then, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ordered the release of funds to government-funded broadcasters overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM).
Why It Matters
Dozens of lawsuits have been filed challenging Trump’s executive orders and actions taken by his administration, including the dismantling of federal agencies and crackdown on international students involved in pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Trump’s executive actions have been partially or fully blocked by the courts at least 78 times, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press.
What To Know
A three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled in favor of Ozturk after hearing arguments on Tuesday.
A district court judge in Vermont had ordered she be brought to the state for hearings to determine whether she was illegally detained. Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process. The Justice Department, which appealed the district court’s ruling, argued the immigration court in Louisiana has jurisdiction over Ozturk’s case.
But in its order, the appeals court said Vermont is “likely the proper venue to adjudicate” Ozturk’s petition “because, at the time she filed, she was physically in Vermont and her immediate custodian was unknown.”
It also said the government didn’t show “irreparable injury” and that Ozturk’s interest in participating in person in the Vermont hearings “outweighs the government’s purported administrative and logistical costs.” The court said Ozturk can participate remotely in immigration court proceedings initiated in Louisiana.
Ozturk was surrounded by immigration agents as she walked in a Boston suburb on March 25 and driven to New Hampshire and Vermont before being flown to a detention center in Basile, Louisiana. Her student visa had been revoked several days earlier, but she was not informed of that, according to her lawyers. That came after she co-wrote an op-ed in the campus newspaper, The Tufts Daily, last year, criticizing the university’s response to student protests demanding the university “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide” and divest from companies with ties to Israel.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson alleged in March, without providing evidence, that investigations found Ozturk had engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Ozturk has denied the accusation, and no formal charges have been filed related to terrorism.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit’s ruling orders the release of funds to federally funded news organizations.
It comes after Trump signed an executive order in March gutting the government-run USAGM. After Trump’s order, Kari Lake, who was named by Trump as a senior adviser to the agency, terminated congressionally-appropriated grants to Radio Free Asia and other outlets funded by the government. Several lawsuits have been filed to reverse the moves.
Two lower court rulings stopped the administration from cutting off funds to the outlets, but the appeals court in early May ruled that the Trump administration could continue to withhold funding.
Now, the appeal court’s 7-4 ruling orders the government to pay out more than $25 million in grants. Four Republican appointees on the court dissented.
What People Are Saying
Lia Ernst, legal director, ACLU of Vermont, said in a statement: “The government’s efforts to deny Rümeysa access to justice by deploying these gratuitous delay tactics have once again been rightfully blocked by the courts. Today’s ruling affirms that her swift transfer to Vermont is essential, and we will continue fighting until she is free.”
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told NPR that having a visa to live and study in the U.S. is “a privilege not a right.”
She said: “Today’s ruling does not prevent the continued detention of Ms. Ozturk, and we will continue to fight for the arrest, detention, and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty president and CEO Stephen Capus said in a statement on Wednesday: “Every day without our congressionally appropriated funds, we’re losing more of our audiences to the state-sponsored propaganda networks of China, Russia, and Iran, who are eagerly filling the information vacuum the U.S. is needlessly and recklessly leaving behind.”
Lake said in March: “The U.S. Agency for Global Media will continue to deliver on all statutory programs that fall under the agency’s purview and shed everything that is not statutorily required. I fully support the President’s executive order. Waste, fraud, and abuse run rampant in this agency and American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund it.”
What Happens Next
The appeals court in New York ordered Ozturk to be transferred to ICE custody in Vermont no later than May 14.
The DC Circuit court ordered an administrative stay on earlier rulings “to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency petitions.”
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