On August 28, 2026, in Stanford Daily Publishing Corporation v. Rubio, a U.S. district judge ruled in favor of the student newspaper Stanford Daily in a case challenging the Trump administration’s actions against free speech by noncitizen students in the United States “who express opinions the government wants to suppress.”
The plaintiffs alleged, the court said, that since March 2025, the Trump administration changed the U.S. government’s “immigration policy and pattern of enforcement by arresting, detaining, and deporting students with F-1 visas when those students use their freedom of speech to express opinions that the government does not like—such as expressing support or empathy for Palestinian people, or criticizing Israel’s actions regarding Palestine or the conflict in Gaza.” The plaintiffs argued that these actions violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The court said, “Stated plainly, in the United States, freedom of speech belongs to the people. It is not the government’s to take.”
The Stanford Daily noted that it was “one of three plaintiffs in the lawsuit, alongside two anonymous students not affiliated with Stanford, though one later departed the case. The plaintiffs were represented pro bono by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).”
