From free speech to religion and press - Trump admin violated rights in 75 rulings

Published 5 August 2026 · us

Trump admin accused of infringing First Amendment rights. (Photo: White House Gallery) How often has the Trump administration lost? Who brought the First Amendment challenges?

Trump admin accused of infringing First Amendment rights. (Photo: White House Gallery) How often has the Trump administration lost? Who brought the First Amendment challenges? Appeals courts hand administration some victories Trump’s campaign against ‘censorship’ ‘First Amendment’s boundaries are very clear’ Appeals court weighs action against law firms The US president, Donald Trump, repeatedly campaigned for a second term as a champion of free expression and vowed in his January 2025 inaugural address to stop what he described as years of “government censorship”. A wave of court decisions since then has concluded that his administration acted in the opposite direction, with judges repeatedly finding that it chilled or suppressed the speech of citizens and groups opposed to the Republican president’s agenda.Reuters identified 75 rulings by federal judges that found the Trump administration had infringed First Amendment rights, including freedoms of speech, religion and the press. The pushback on constitutional grounds was unprecedented.“The President’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech,” William Young, a Boston-based US district judge, wrote. Young, who was appointed by Republican President Ronald Reagan, ruled in September that the administration had illegally detained and deported foreign students and faculty members, and revoked their visas, because of their pro-Palestinian advocacy.Other judges found that federal agencies had terminated grants awarded to universities, including Harvard, for refusing to align with Trump’s ideological agenda; retaliated against law firms based on their legal advocacy; and used excessive force at protests.Trump administration officials have repeatedly called federal judges who ruled against them “activists” and accused them of interfering with the president’s executive authority. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson criticized the First Amendment rulings, saying in a statement that “the federal judiciary has repeatedly endangered and obstructed the election choices of the American people with its unlawful rulings”.Of the 93 cases during Trump’s second term in which judges considered First Amendment arguments, 75 produced lower-court rulings against his administration, Reuters found.Most of the adverse decisions came from judges appointed by Democratic presidents, although Republican appointees delivered rulings against the administration in 10 cases.By comparison, Reuters identified just 27 cases during Democratic President Joe Biden’s term in which lower-court judges considered First Amendment challenges to his agenda.