Rare trial challenging Trump-backed deportation of pro-Palestinian campus activists begins
By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) -Groups representing U.S. university professors seeking to protect international students and faculty who engage in pro-Palestinian advocacy from being deported on Monday did what no other litigants challenging the Trump administration's hardline immigration agenda have done so far: Take it to trial.
The two-week non-jury trial that kicked off in Boston in the professors' case marks a rarity in the hundreds of lawsuits that have been filed nationally challenging Republican President Donald Trump's efforts to carry out mass deportations, slash spending and reshape the federal government.
In many of those cases, judges have issued quick rulings early on in the proceedings without any witnesses being called to testify. But U.S. District Judge William Young, an 84-year-old appointee of Republican President Ronald Reagan, in keeping with his long-standing practice instead ordered a trial in the professors' case, saying it was the "best way to get at truth."
The trial stems from a lawsuit filed in March by the American Association of University Professors and its chapters at Harvard, Rutgers and New York University, and the Middle East Studies Association, in which they argued the administration was chilling free speech on campuses in violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rare-trial-begin-challenge-trump-100333706.html