{"id":20443,"date":"2025-03-15T14:05:56","date_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=20443"},"modified":"2025-03-15T14:05:56","modified_gmt":"2025-03-15T14:05:56","slug":"je-suis-khalil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/financialrush.com\/?p=20443","title":{"rendered":"Je suis Khalil"},"content":{"rendered":"

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This article is an on-site version of our Swamp Notes newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here<\/a> to get the newsletter delivered every Monday and Friday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here<\/a>, or explore<\/a> all FT newsletters<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Every American should worry about Mahmoud Khalil, the recent Columbia University graduate who was detained last week by US immigration authorities, though \u201cabducted\u201d would be a better description. It is no exaggeration to say Khalil\u2019s fate is a test of how easily President Donald Trump can slide into lawlessness. To recap, Trump wants to revoke Khalil\u2019s green card and deport him for demonstrating against Israel during the Columbia University protests.<\/p>\n

In spite of apparently having broken no law, Khalil was arrested on Saturday when he was at home with his eight-months-pregnant American wife in New York. From there he was spirited away to a facility in Louisiana (a state with many more pro-Trump judges). The pretext was that he spoke at events where pro-Hamas literature was distributed, though there appears to be no evidence that he has any ties to Hamas.<\/p>\n

Should Trump get his way, his licence to punish any speech that he deems pro-terrorist or against the US national interest would make him judge and jury on first amendment rights. It would put every US citizen \u2014 not just permanent residents \u2014 at risk. To take one example: Trump said that attacks on Tesla showrooms qualify as domestic terrorism. But you can fill in any number of blanks. Trump depicts his adversaries as the enemy within. Isn\u2019t criticising America\u2019s president anti-national?<\/p>\n

My guess is that Khalil\u2019s case will make it to the Supreme Court. There, one of three scenarios could happen: <\/p>\n

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  1. \n

    The court rejects Trump\u2019s attempts to bring back the Hanoverian bill of attainder and Trump reluctantly complies.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  2. \n

    The court folds and essentially declares Trump to be king. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  3. \n

    The court upholds the law, which gives due process to citizens and permanent residents alike, but Trump ignores the ruling.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Both 2 and 3 would end the rule of law in America, though 3 would be a more dramatic way of doing it. 1 would be great, though do not bet on it. \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Students of political science could not ask for a better live experiment in whether liberal democracy can survive. The difference boils down to the courage of individual Americans. Here are two recent contrasting tales of character. Read this letter<\/a> by William Treanor, dean of Georgetown\u2019s law school, in response to the demand from DC\u2019s acting attorney, Ed Martin, that Treanor should end the school\u2019s DEI policies. Treanor makes it plain that Martin\u2019s demand is blatantly illegal. <\/p>\n

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    \u201cGiven the First Amendment\u2019s protection of a university\u2019s freedom to determine its own curriculum and how to deliver it, the constitutional violation behind this threat is clear, as is the attack on the University\u2019s mission as a Jesuit and Catholic institution,\u201d Treanor wrote. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    It is worth noting that Martin has declared himself the president\u2019s personal lawyer (a first for a US attorney) and threatened legal action against \u201canyone who impedes\u201d the work of Elon Musk\u2019s so-called department of government efficiency.<\/p>\n

    If everyone responds like Treanor, we can sleep a little easier. The same applies to Beryl Howell, the US district judge who this week temporarily blocked parts of Trump\u2019s executive order targeting the law firm Perkins Coie. The firm\u2019s sin was to have represented Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Trump has also issued a federal ban on several lawyers working at another law firm, Covington & Burling, for providing pro bono advice to Jack Smith, the former special counsel who investigated Trump. Clients have fled Perkins for fear that any association will put them in Trump\u2019s sights. Trump, in other words, is harming law firms\u2019 business for doing their jobs. \u201cIt sends chills down my spine,\u201d said Howell when she issued the temporary restraining order. She also expressed \u201cenormous respect\u201d for Williams & Connolly, the law firm representing Perkins Coie.<\/p>\n

    Alas, the courage of Treanor and Howell is more than matched by the feebleness of others, including the companies that terminated their contracts with the law firms at the first whiff of danger. Among those folding too easily is Katrina Armstrong, interim president of Columbia University, who responded with this letter<\/a> after Trump cancelled $400mn of federal research funding for Columbia. The president\u2019s claim was that the university was failing to protect its Jewish students. Do not believe that pretext for a second. His larger goal is to punish US universities \u2014 another 59 of which are being investigated on similar grounds. Trump\u2019s war on higher education is just getting under way.<\/p>\n

    Armstrong acknowledged Trump\u2019s \u201clegitimate concerns\u201d in her decidedly uncourageous response. Nor has she spoken out in defence of Khalil, a Columbia graduate. For profiles in cowardice, however, consider the Anti-Defamation League, a once proud defender of US civil liberties that is now a reliable backer of Trump. \u201cWe appreciate the Trump Administration\u2019s broad, bold set of efforts to counter campus antisemitism \u2014 and this action further illustrates that resolve by holding alleged perpetrators responsible for their actions,\u201d said the ADL in a statement<\/a> after Khalil\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n

    This was the same group that appealed for \u201cgrace\u201d after Elon Musk had given two unmistakable Sieg Heil <\/em>salutes last month. \u201cIt seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,\u201d ADL said. Meanwhile, here is Trump on protesters. \u201cAgitators will be imprisoned\/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came,\u201d\u00a0he posted. \u201cAmerican students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested.\u201d And here is Amy Spitalnick, head of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs: \u201cAny Jew who thinks this is going to start and stop with a few Palestinian activists is fooling themselves,\u201d she told the New York Times.<\/a><\/p>\n

    I am turning this week to my wonderful colleague Stefania Palma, our US legal and enforcement correspondent. Stefania, am I right to say that the Khalil case is seminal? How quickly would you expect it to reach the Supreme Court? \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Recommended reading<\/h3>\n