US court upholds release of pro-Palestinian expert as legal battle continues | Donald Trump News

The appeals judges’ decision to join Georgetown’s Badar Khan Suri against Trump has set the stage for the Supreme Court to intervene.

A U.S. appeals court has rejected a request by immigration officials to detain a Georgetown University professor who is expected to be deported for opposing Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza.

In a 2-1 decision, the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Virginia said that federal immigration law did not prevent a lower court judge from ordering Badar Khan Suri’s release.

Khan Suri, an Indian national, was arrested in March 2025 while President Donald Trump’s administration was arresting and deporting foreign nationals engaged in pro-Palestinian activities on college campuses.

The appeals court agreed with Khan Suri’s claim that his arrest violated his constitutional and free speech rights. The court also rejected a request by the Trump administration to move the case from Virginia to Texas.

“If a noncitizen contends that he is detained pending removal, then waiting for removal will not serve him. He has already been detained, in violation of the Constitution,” the court wrote in its ruling.

A district court judge had ordered it Release of Khan Suri in May last year.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which is helping represent Khan Suri, welcomed the decision on Thursday.

“The First Amendment protects all of us — regardless of citizenship — and we will continue to fight for those rights,” said Eden Heilman, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia.

“ICE kidnapped Dr. Khan Suri from his home in Virginia before moving him between five different ICE facilities in three states in a brazen attempt to find a court that would support his illegal detention,” Heilman said, citing Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The appeal court’s decision came after two other appeals courts overturned lower court judges’ rulings that resulted in the release of supporters of the Palestinian school.

In Tuesday’s ruling, three judges of the US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a lower court should not order the release of a Columbia University student. Mohsen Mahdawi because the case had to be resolved in the civil courts.

The Department of Justice oversees the immigration courts, which are separate from the federal judiciary, which operate independently of the executive branch.

In another case, the appeals court also found that the district judge who acquitted the Palestinian lawyer. Mahmoud Khalil he had no authority to release him. The court allowed Khalil to remain free while he appealed to the Supreme Court.

As one appeals group sides with a pro-Palestinian student and two others who side with the Trump administration, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to consider whether to rule on the matter.

To crack down on Palestinian activists, the Trump administration has relied on a rarely used law that gives the secretary of state the power to remove people it deems to have “negative foreign consequences” from the US.

The Supreme Court’s decision in the Khan Suri, Khalil and Mahdawi cases may be a landmark decision that has far-reaching implications for the rights of non-US citizens.

The Supreme Court has six or three permanent members, including three justices appointed by Trump.