November 24, 2025
Stanford Students Sue Over Trump’s Crackdown on Political Speech
By Nic Wong
Amid the administration’s war on higher education, The Stanford Daily’s lawsuit targets federal statutes that allow deportation and visa revocation based on political speech.
In a San Jose courtroom on the morning of November 19, attorneys for The Stanford Daily and two anonymous international students argued that President Donald Trump’s administration has used federal law as a weapon against political dissent.
The lawsuit, filed against Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, asserts that the plaintiffs’ First and Fifth Amendment rights have been fundamentally violated—but that it’s the statutes themselves, not just the administration enforcing them, to blame.
Unlike many First Amendment cases, which focus on harm to a handful of individuals, this suit challenges the underlying laws that allow the government to deport people for political speech. The suit argues that noncitizens lawfully present in the US enjoy the same free‑speech protections as citizens, even when their views are politically unpopular.
