{"id":3975,"date":"2025-09-30T14:18:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3975"},"modified":"2025-09-30T14:18:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T14:18:07","slug":"mohsen-mahdawi-faces-conservative-judges-in-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunowner-news.com\/?p=3975","title":{"rendered":"Mohsen Mahdawi Faces Conservative Judges in Federal Court"},"content":{"rendered":"


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The Trump administration<\/span> will argue before a panel of three conservative federal judges Tuesday to put Columbia University graduate student Mohsen Mahdawi back behind bars. One judge has already expressed support<\/a> for the government\u2019s right to imprison Mahdawi, a Palestinian student protest leader.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re arguing that I should be put in prison just for speaking up against the genocide of my people,\u201d Mahdawi told The Intercept.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents took Mahdawi away in handcuffs in April after he arrived at what he thought was his naturalization interview<\/a> to become a U.S. citizen, as The Intercept first reported. Since a federal judge ordered Mahdawi\u2019s release on bail in May, the Trump administration has been working to re-imprison him and remove him from the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Intercept, Mahdawi connected his case to President Donald Trump\u2019s larger project to crush his political opponents. Trump has deployed<\/a> the National Guard to cities<\/a> he perceives as strongholds for his rivals, Mahdawi noted, while facilitating Israel\u2019s ongoing genocide in Gaza and backing plans to take over Gaza and parts of the West Bank.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a very clear connection that I see between what is happening in America and what\u2019s happening in Israel. Both of them don\u2019t want democracy,\u201d Mahdawi said. \u201cThey want strength and domination and control.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On Tuesday, attorneys for the U.S. government will argue in federal appeals court to overturn Mahdawi\u2019s release on the grounds that the federal court that freed him was operating outside of its jurisdiction. All three judges on the panel were appointed by Republican presidents: two Trump appointees, William J. Nardini and Steven J. Menashi, and a George W. Bush appointee, Debra Ann Livingston. Menashi has already argued that it was not within the court\u2019s jurisdiction to question the government\u2019s detention of Mahdawi and R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk<\/a>, another student ICE abducted earlier this year.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. and Israel \u201cwant strength and domination and control.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

The case carries significant weight not only for Mahdawi\u2019s future, but also for broader free speech protections<\/a> under the Trump administration\u2019s attacks. It will center on whether a district court judge had jurisdiction to hear the case challenging Mahdawi\u2019s detention \u2014 a detail that, while technical, could restrict judges\u2019 abilities to review unlawful detention in cases like Mahdawi\u2019s if the panel rules in the government\u2019s favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe government has made the same argument of every one of the cases, this jurisdiction argument,\u201d said Luna Droubi, an attorney on Mahdawi\u2019s team, referring to ongoing cases involving other pro-Palestine students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Separately, Mahdawi\u2019s legal team is working on his pending immigration case \u2014 contending with another government system Trump has been using to crack down on his critics. No hearing date has been set.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere Is No Protection Whatsoever\u201d<\/h2>\n

Mahdawi returned to Columbia University this month, stepping back onto the campus where he first became a target of the Trump administration\u2019s sweeping attacks on pro-Palestine students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now working on his master\u2019s in peacemaking and conflict resolution at Columbia\u2019s School of International and Public Affairs, Mahdawi criticized his school for capitulating to the Trump administration\u2019s demands<\/a> to overhaul its curriculum and policies related to diversity, speech, and protest activity on campus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cColumbia is one of the largest [schools] that have the ability and the power to fight back,\u201d Mahdawi said. \u201cAnd it has decided willingly, without showing any level of resistance, to capitulate and to give the Trump\u2019s administration what they wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, Trump applauded Columbia for agreeing to pay a $200 million settlement to his administration over allegations that the school failed to protect the civil rights of Jewish students after the October 7 attacks. Trump said<\/a> Columbia had committed to ending what he called its \u201cridiculous\u201d diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and \u201cprotecting the Civil Liberties of their students on campus.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Amid Trump\u2019s attacks across higher education, Columbia has agreed to change its disciplinary process<\/a>, its diversity and equity<\/a> policies, and to review all of its programming related to Middle Eastern studies<\/a>. Still, Acting President Claire Shipman said publicly<\/a> in late July that the school \u201cretains control\u201d over its academic and institutional decisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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