A federal appeals court ruled on July 21 that a district court judge in Vermont overstepped his authority last year when he ordered the release of a foreign student facing deportation by the Trump administration over pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a unanimous decision to vacate the lower court’s decision and return Palestinian student Mohsen Mahdawi’s case to be dismissed.
The three-judge panel found the lower court should have allowed Mahdawi’s case to proceed fully through the federal immigration court system before taking it.
Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston wrote in the ruling that the district court judge also erred in ruling that Mahdawi would have succeeded in showing that the government unlawfully targeted him based on First Amendment-protected activity….