BOSTON—Below are highlights from today’s proceedings in the trial before Judge William G. Young in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts in a case challenging the Trump administration’s policy of ideological deportation.

  • Closing out the first week of testimony, two senior officials in the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs testified about State’s process for revoking student visas and issuing determinations of removability for green card holders. 

    • During testimony by Maureen Smith, a Senior Advisor in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, the government invoked the presidential communications privilege to block questioning about the Homeland Security Council. Smith was cross-examined by Scott Wilkens of the Knight First Amendment Institute. 

    • John Armstrong, the most senior official in the Bureau of Consular Affairs, denied that there was any ideological deportation policy but confirmed that he has reviewed between 15 and 20 memos recommending action against student protesters. Armstrong was cross-examined by Alexandra Conlon of Sher Tremonte LLP. His cross examination will continue Monday. 

  • Late on Thursday evening, the government filed papers in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit—the appellate court that sits above Judge Young—challenging his decision to release government documents to the plaintiffs. As an interim measure, the First Circuit paused further disclosure of certain government documents in an order that Judge Young received and read in open court this afternoon. 

  • Monday’s expected witnesses: John Armstrong, the Senior Bureau Official in the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, and Jeffrey Reger, the Executive Director of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). 

A transcript of today’s testimony will be available shortly here. 

The trial began on Monday, July 7, 9:00 am ET and is expected to end on Friday, July 18, 1:00pm ET.

Read daily trial updates here. 

Members of the press need to register daily to access the trial livestream here.

Read more about the case here. 

Lawyers on the case include Ramya Krishnan, Jameel Jaffer, Alex Abdo, Scott Wilkens, Carrie DeCell, Xiangnong (George) Wang, Talya Nevins, Jackson Busch, and Stephany Kim for the Knight First Amendment Institute, Ahilan Arulanantham, Michael Tremonte, Noam Biale, Alexandra Conlon, and Courtney Gans for Sher Tremonte, and Edwina Clarke and David Zimmer for Zimmer, Citron & Clarke.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, [email protected].