Key facts
- The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to review a lower court's decision regarding the detention of scholar Badar Khan Suri.
- Suri was arrested in March 2025 for pro-Palestinian activism and released in May 2025 by a district court judge.
- The administration argues that federal immigration law prevents judges from ordering releases based on free speech claims.
- The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals previously ruled that judges can hear such challenges.
- Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the 4th Circuit's ruling could disrupt immigration enforcement nationwide.
The Trump administration has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a decision that led to the release of a Georgetown University scholar who had advocated for Palestinian rights and opposed Israel's war in Gaza. The Department of Justice argued that federal immigration law barred a lower-court judge from ordering Badar Khan Suri's release after he claimed his detention violated his due process and free speech rights.
Suri, an Indian citizen, was arrested in March 2025 as the administration pursued a campaign to detain and deport foreign nationals engaged in pro-Palestinian activism on college campuses. He was freed in May 2025 by a district court judge who found he was likely to succeed in proving his arrest was retaliation for constitutionally protected speech. The administration argued the judge should not have interfered.
A 2-1 panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in July that nothing prevented a judge from hearing a challenge to an allegedly unconstitutional detention, even if deportation proceedings were pending. Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in Monday's petition that the 4th Circuit's ruling was wrong and risked disrupting immigration enforcement nationwide by allowing detainees to challenge deportations outside of immigration court.
Sauer noted that a different appeals court had reached the opposite conclusion earlier this year when it overturned a ruling that had led to the release of another pro-Palestinian activist, Mahmoud Khalil. Khalil's lawyers plan to appeal that decision to the Supreme Court, and Sauer argued the justices should take up both cases to resolve the issue.