Immigration judges sue Trump administration alleging their free speech rights have been violated
Source: Texas Tribune
Hundreds of the country's immigration judges filed a lawsuit Wednesday alleging that the Trump administration is muzzling their right to free speech.
The lawsuit cites a 2020 policy enacted by the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review that prohibits judges from speaking about policy or law, even in their personal capacities, and requires immigration judges to obtain prior permission before speaking on any other policy, according to the lawsuit, which was filed in a Virginia federal court by Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University on behalf of the National Association of Immigration Judges, a nationwide organization of more than 460 judges.
The policy violates the First and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, the judges argue, and the U.S. Supreme Court has previously held that “people do not surrender their free-speech rights when they accept government employment.”
The government can only prohibit speech if it can show that doing so outweighs an employee’s interest and the public’s interest in hearing what that person has to say.
Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2020/07/01/immigration-judges-sue-trump-administration-free-speech/
Article by Julián Aguilar.
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