New York
Judge blocks deportation of Palestinian activist who led protests at Columbia
NEW YORK (AP) — An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian graduate student who led protests at Columbia University against Israel and the war in Gaza.
In a ruling made public Tuesday, the judge, Nina Froes, said she had terminated the case because of a procedural misstep by government attorneys, who failed to properly certify an official document they intended to use as evidence.
The Trump administration may appeal the decision. But the ruling marked the latest setback for the federal government’s sweeping effort to expel pro-Palestinian campus activists and others who expressed criticism of Israel.
Last month, a separate immigration judge blocked the government’s attempt to deport a Tufts University graduate student, Rümeysa Öztürk, over an op-ed criticizing the school’s response to the war in Gaza.
Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident of the U.S. for the last decade, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He was arrested by immigration agents during a citizenship interview last April, but he was released two weeks later by a federal judge.
In the months since, the government has continued its effort to deport him, citing a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing noncitizens can be expelled from the country if their presence may undermine U.S. foreign policy interests.
Government attorneys submitted a photocopy of the document to the immigration judge, but they failed to certify it as required under federal law, the judge wrote.
“I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi said in a statement released by his attorneys. “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice.”
Mahdawi has also mounted a separate case in federal district court arguing that he was unlawfully detained. That case remains ongoing, his lawyers said.
In an emailed statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, cast Mahdawi as a leader of “pro-terrorist riots” whose visa should be revoked.
“No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that,” she added.
Alaska
Lawsuits challenge renewed push for oil drilling in petroleum reserve and upcoming lease sale
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Conservation organizations and an Iñupiat group filed legal challenges Tuesday to the Trump administration’s renewed push for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and an upcoming lease sale that they say improperly makes available ecologically sensitive lands that have been long protected.
At least two lawsuits challenging the March 18 lease sale were filed. One, in federal court in Alaska, was brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth. Another, in federal court in the District of Columbia, was filed by The Wilderness Society and Grandmothers Growing Goodness, a group seeking to draw attention to the impacts of oil and gas development on Iñupiat communities.
The sale would be the first in the reserve since 2019 and the first under a law passed by Congress last year calling for at least five lease sales there over a 10-year period. The reserve covers an area on Alaska’s North Slope that’s roughly the size of Indiana and provides habitat for an array of wildlife, including caribou, bears, wolves and millions of migratory birds.
Both lawsuits list as defendants the U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and top agency officials. The Earthjustice complaint additionally includes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. An email seeking comment was sent Tuesday to an Interior Department spokesperson. The land management and fish and wildlife agencies fall under Interior.
This is the latest in a long-running debate over how much of the reserve should be open for development. A plan adopted by the Trump administration would make about 80% of the reserve available for oil and gas leasing.
Supporters say the petroleum reserve’s name suggests it’s a place where drilling should occur, while critics argue the law balances allowances for drilling with a need to protect sensitive areas. There also are differing views among Alaska Natives about development. A group representing many North Slope leaders has supported drilling in the reserve, while others have raised concerns that projects could negatively impact communities.
The lawsuits say next month’s planned lease sale includes tracts of lands in areas near Teshekpuk Lake and the Colville River previously designated as special for their wildlife, subsistence or other values. They say sales notices provide no rationale for why those tracts were included and no acknowledgment by the Bureau of Land Management of prior findings that lands in those areas should be off limits to leasing.
The case filed by Earthjustice said a management plan for the reserve underpinning the lease sale “unlawfully removes lands from the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and eliminates the Colville River Special Area.” A longstanding federal law pertaining to oil and gas development in the reserve gives the Interior secretary authority “to designate special areas for maximum protection of identified significant resource values,” the lawsuit states. “Congress has not authorized the Secretary to remove lands from or eliminate special areas, especially where those lands still contain the significant resource values that supported their designation.”
Teshekpuk Lake is the largest lake in Alaska’s arctic region. The Colville River and associated wetlands provide habitat for nesting raptors and supports subsistence activities for residents on Alaska’s North Slope, the lawsuit says.
It asks a judge to invalidate any leases issued in the upcoming sale and to block future sales based on what the plaintiffs argue are flawed environmental reviews and land management plans.
The other lawsuit asks a judge to declare as arbitrary and improper a decision by an Interior Department official canceling a right-of-way issued during the Biden administration that was aimed at protecting the Teshekpuk caribou herd and habitat across roughly 1 million acres within the special area. It also challenges the validity of the tracts offered for lease that fall within the now-canceled right of way and other tracts nearby that overlap with caribou habitat and that the Bureau of Land Management has classified as having high oil and gas development potential.
Pennsylvania
Trump administration appeals order to restore George Washington slavery exhibit
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Trump administration will appeal a federal judge’s order to restore a Philadelphia exhibit on the nine people enslaved by George Washington at his former home on Independence Mall.
The Justice Department insists the administration alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service properties. Park service workers last month abruptly removed exhibits from the Philadelphia site, prompting the city and other supporters of the exhibit to sue.
U.S. Senior Judge Cynthia M. Rufe on Monday granted an injunction ordering that the materials be restored while the lawsuit proceeds and barring Trump officials from creating new interpretations of the site’s history. The administration on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also based in Philadelphia.
Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, compared President Donald Trump’s administration to the totalitarian regime in the dystopian novel “1984,” which revised historical records to align with its narrative.
“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”
Millions of people are expected to visit Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, this year for the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 1776.
The historical site is among several where the administration has quietly removed content about the history of enslaved people, LGBTQ+ people and Native Americans.
Florida
Jaden Rashada, Billy Napier and others settle breach of contract suit over $14M NIL deal
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Quarterback Jaden Rashada’s lawsuit against former Florida coach Billy Napier and three other defendants regarding a failed name, image and likeness deal worth nearly $14 million has been settled.
Court documents show the case was formally settled Tuesday when a mediation report was delivered. The sides held a mediation conference early last week. Napier, now the coach at James Madison, was in town for his deposition. The judge had set a trial date for July.
Details of the settlement were not released.
Rashada sued Napier, Florida booster Hugh Hathcock, Hathcock’s former company, Velocity Automotive, and Marcus Castro-Walker, the program’s former director of player engagement, in federal court in Pensacola in 2024.
He accused Napier, Hathcock, Velocity and Castro-Walker of fraudulent misrepresentation and inducement, aiding and abetting fraud, civil conspiracy to commit fraud, negligent misrepresentations, tortious interference with a business relationship or contract, aiding and abetting tortious interference and vicarious liability. The complaint requested a jury trial and damages of at least $10 million.
The NCAA began investigating Florida in 2023 regarding Rashada’s recruitment. The NCAA asked the school not to conduct its own investigation and said it would notify the institution “soon regarding the projected timeline of the investigation.”
But the following year, the NCAA halted investigations into booster-backed collectives or other third parties making NIL compensation deals with Division I athletes following lawsuits. The decision came after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia. The antitrust suit challenged NCAA rules against recruiting inducements, saying they inhibit athletes’ ability to cash in on their celebrity and fame.
The lawsuit, though, landed the Gators back in the spotlight.
Rashada, who threw for 5,275 yards and 59 touchdowns at Pittsburg (California) High School, initially agreed to play for Miami in the fall of 2022. According to the lawsuit, the Hurricanes promised Rashada a $9.5 million NIL deal.
But Napier and Hathcock lured Rashada away from Miami with a $13.85 million NIL deal that violated NCAA bylaws, the suit said. Rashada’s deal was with the Gator Collective, an independent fundraising group that was loosely tied to the university and paid student-athletes for use of their NIL. The Gator Collective has since been disbanded.
The lawsuit accused Napier of vouching for the Gator Collective and promising Rashada $1 million on signing day.
Rashada was granted his release a month after his NIL deal fell through. He later signed with his father’s alma mater, Arizona State. He spent 2023 there, transferred to Georgia in 2024, transferred to Sacramento State in 2025 and is now at Mississippi State.
Judge blocks deportation of Palestinian activist who led protests at Columbia
NEW YORK (AP) — An immigration judge has blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian graduate student who led protests at Columbia University against Israel and the war in Gaza.
In a ruling made public Tuesday, the judge, Nina Froes, said she had terminated the case because of a procedural misstep by government attorneys, who failed to properly certify an official document they intended to use as evidence.
The Trump administration may appeal the decision. But the ruling marked the latest setback for the federal government’s sweeping effort to expel pro-Palestinian campus activists and others who expressed criticism of Israel.
Last month, a separate immigration judge blocked the government’s attempt to deport a Tufts University graduate student, Rümeysa Öztürk, over an op-ed criticizing the school’s response to the war in Gaza.
Mahdawi, a legal permanent resident of the U.S. for the last decade, was born in a refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. He was arrested by immigration agents during a citizenship interview last April, but he was released two weeks later by a federal judge.
In the months since, the government has continued its effort to deport him, citing a memo from Secretary of State Marco Rubio arguing noncitizens can be expelled from the country if their presence may undermine U.S. foreign policy interests.
Government attorneys submitted a photocopy of the document to the immigration judge, but they failed to certify it as required under federal law, the judge wrote.
“I am grateful to the court for honoring the rule of law and holding the line against the government’s attempts to trample on due process,” Mahdawi said in a statement released by his attorneys. “This decision is an important step towards upholding what fear tried to destroy: the right to speak for peace and justice.”
Mahdawi has also mounted a separate case in federal district court arguing that he was unlawfully detained. That case remains ongoing, his lawyers said.
In an emailed statement, Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security, cast Mahdawi as a leader of “pro-terrorist riots” whose visa should be revoked.
“No activist judge, not this one or any other, is going to stop us from doing that,” she added.
Alaska
Lawsuits challenge renewed push for oil drilling in petroleum reserve and upcoming lease sale
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Conservation organizations and an Iñupiat group filed legal challenges Tuesday to the Trump administration’s renewed push for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and an upcoming lease sale that they say improperly makes available ecologically sensitive lands that have been long protected.
At least two lawsuits challenging the March 18 lease sale were filed. One, in federal court in Alaska, was brought by Earthjustice on behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth. Another, in federal court in the District of Columbia, was filed by The Wilderness Society and Grandmothers Growing Goodness, a group seeking to draw attention to the impacts of oil and gas development on Iñupiat communities.
The sale would be the first in the reserve since 2019 and the first under a law passed by Congress last year calling for at least five lease sales there over a 10-year period. The reserve covers an area on Alaska’s North Slope that’s roughly the size of Indiana and provides habitat for an array of wildlife, including caribou, bears, wolves and millions of migratory birds.
Both lawsuits list as defendants the U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Bureau of Land Management and top agency officials. The Earthjustice complaint additionally includes the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. An email seeking comment was sent Tuesday to an Interior Department spokesperson. The land management and fish and wildlife agencies fall under Interior.
This is the latest in a long-running debate over how much of the reserve should be open for development. A plan adopted by the Trump administration would make about 80% of the reserve available for oil and gas leasing.
Supporters say the petroleum reserve’s name suggests it’s a place where drilling should occur, while critics argue the law balances allowances for drilling with a need to protect sensitive areas. There also are differing views among Alaska Natives about development. A group representing many North Slope leaders has supported drilling in the reserve, while others have raised concerns that projects could negatively impact communities.
The lawsuits say next month’s planned lease sale includes tracts of lands in areas near Teshekpuk Lake and the Colville River previously designated as special for their wildlife, subsistence or other values. They say sales notices provide no rationale for why those tracts were included and no acknowledgment by the Bureau of Land Management of prior findings that lands in those areas should be off limits to leasing.
The case filed by Earthjustice said a management plan for the reserve underpinning the lease sale “unlawfully removes lands from the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area and eliminates the Colville River Special Area.” A longstanding federal law pertaining to oil and gas development in the reserve gives the Interior secretary authority “to designate special areas for maximum protection of identified significant resource values,” the lawsuit states. “Congress has not authorized the Secretary to remove lands from or eliminate special areas, especially where those lands still contain the significant resource values that supported their designation.”
Teshekpuk Lake is the largest lake in Alaska’s arctic region. The Colville River and associated wetlands provide habitat for nesting raptors and supports subsistence activities for residents on Alaska’s North Slope, the lawsuit says.
It asks a judge to invalidate any leases issued in the upcoming sale and to block future sales based on what the plaintiffs argue are flawed environmental reviews and land management plans.
The other lawsuit asks a judge to declare as arbitrary and improper a decision by an Interior Department official canceling a right-of-way issued during the Biden administration that was aimed at protecting the Teshekpuk caribou herd and habitat across roughly 1 million acres within the special area. It also challenges the validity of the tracts offered for lease that fall within the now-canceled right of way and other tracts nearby that overlap with caribou habitat and that the Bureau of Land Management has classified as having high oil and gas development potential.
Pennsylvania
Trump administration appeals order to restore George Washington slavery exhibit
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Trump administration will appeal a federal judge’s order to restore a Philadelphia exhibit on the nine people enslaved by George Washington at his former home on Independence Mall.
The Justice Department insists the administration alone can decide what stories are told at National Park Service properties. Park service workers last month abruptly removed exhibits from the Philadelphia site, prompting the city and other supporters of the exhibit to sue.
U.S. Senior Judge Cynthia M. Rufe on Monday granted an injunction ordering that the materials be restored while the lawsuit proceeds and barring Trump officials from creating new interpretations of the site’s history. The administration on Tuesday filed a notice of appeal with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, also based in Philadelphia.
Rufe, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, compared President Donald Trump’s administration to the totalitarian regime in the dystopian novel “1984,” which revised historical records to align with its narrative.
“As if the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell’s 1984 now existed, with its motto ‘Ignorance is Strength,’ this Court is now asked to determine whether the federal government has the power it claims — to dissemble and disassemble historical truths when it has some domain over historical facts,” Rufe wrote. “It does not.”
Millions of people are expected to visit Philadelphia, the nation’s birthplace, this year for the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding in 1776.
The historical site is among several where the administration has quietly removed content about the history of enslaved people, LGBTQ+ people and Native Americans.
Florida
Jaden Rashada, Billy Napier and others settle breach of contract suit over $14M NIL deal
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Quarterback Jaden Rashada’s lawsuit against former Florida coach Billy Napier and three other defendants regarding a failed name, image and likeness deal worth nearly $14 million has been settled.
Court documents show the case was formally settled Tuesday when a mediation report was delivered. The sides held a mediation conference early last week. Napier, now the coach at James Madison, was in town for his deposition. The judge had set a trial date for July.
Details of the settlement were not released.
Rashada sued Napier, Florida booster Hugh Hathcock, Hathcock’s former company, Velocity Automotive, and Marcus Castro-Walker, the program’s former director of player engagement, in federal court in Pensacola in 2024.
He accused Napier, Hathcock, Velocity and Castro-Walker of fraudulent misrepresentation and inducement, aiding and abetting fraud, civil conspiracy to commit fraud, negligent misrepresentations, tortious interference with a business relationship or contract, aiding and abetting tortious interference and vicarious liability. The complaint requested a jury trial and damages of at least $10 million.
The NCAA began investigating Florida in 2023 regarding Rashada’s recruitment. The NCAA asked the school not to conduct its own investigation and said it would notify the institution “soon regarding the projected timeline of the investigation.”
But the following year, the NCAA halted investigations into booster-backed collectives or other third parties making NIL compensation deals with Division I athletes following lawsuits. The decision came after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Tennessee and Virginia. The antitrust suit challenged NCAA rules against recruiting inducements, saying they inhibit athletes’ ability to cash in on their celebrity and fame.
The lawsuit, though, landed the Gators back in the spotlight.
Rashada, who threw for 5,275 yards and 59 touchdowns at Pittsburg (California) High School, initially agreed to play for Miami in the fall of 2022. According to the lawsuit, the Hurricanes promised Rashada a $9.5 million NIL deal.
But Napier and Hathcock lured Rashada away from Miami with a $13.85 million NIL deal that violated NCAA bylaws, the suit said. Rashada’s deal was with the Gator Collective, an independent fundraising group that was loosely tied to the university and paid student-athletes for use of their NIL. The Gator Collective has since been disbanded.
The lawsuit accused Napier of vouching for the Gator Collective and promising Rashada $1 million on signing day.
Rashada was granted his release a month after his NIL deal fell through. He later signed with his father’s alma mater, Arizona State. He spent 2023 there, transferred to Georgia in 2024, transferred to Sacramento State in 2025 and is now at Mississippi State.
