The administration of US President Donald Trump has asked the US Supreme Court to overturn a lower-court decision that led to the release of Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri, who was detained by immigration authorities over his pro-Palestinian advocacy.
The US Department of Justice filed its petition on Monday, September 21, asking the Supreme Court to decide whether federal immigration law prevented a lower-court judge from ordering Suri’s release while deportation proceedings against him were pending.
Suri, an Indian citizen and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, was arrested in March 2025 as the Trump administration pursued the detention and deportation of foreign nationals involved in pro-Palestinian activism on US university campuses.
He was later transferred to Texas and released in May 2025 after a federal district judge found that he was likely to succeed in showing that his detention was retaliation for constitutionally protected speech.
The administration challenged that decision, arguing that the lower court should not have intervened because Suri’s case was part of immigration proceedings.In July, a 2-1 panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that federal judges could hear challenges alleging unconstitutional detention even when the detention was connected to deportation proceedings being handled by immigration courts.
US Solicitor General D. John Sauer has asked the Supreme Court to review that ruling, arguing that it could disrupt immigration enforcement by allowing detainees to challenge deportation-related detention outside the immigration court system.
The administration is also asking the Supreme Court to consider a related case involving Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University activist whose lawyers have indicated they intend to appeal a separate ruling.
The cases could require the Supreme Court to address the extent to which federal courts can intervene in immigration detention cases involving constitutional claims.Suri’s lawyers had not immediately responded to a request for comment, according to Reuters. (Reuters)