Gaza First Amendment Alert (1/26/26)

The Gaza First Amendment Alert is going monthly. After over a year as a biweekly newsletter, we’ve decided that it makes sense to convert to a monthly publishing schedule. If that changes, we’ll let you know. We are continuing to serve as your resource for updates on legal proceedings, executive branch maneuvers, and nonpartisan legislative analysis about civil liberties threats stemming from the Gaza War. Sign up here to receive future Gaza First Amendment Alerts directly in your inbox.

Third Circuit Panel Rules Federal Judge Lacked Jurisdiction in Mahmoud Khalil Case

On January 15, 2026, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit issued a 2-1 ruling that a federal District Judge lacked jurisdiction to hear Mahmoud Khalil’s challenge to his detention. Lawyers for Khalil are appealing the ruling to the full Third Circuit. In spite of false claims from Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin to Newsnation that Khalil would soon be arrested and deported to Algeria, the District Judge’s order remains in effect pending the appeal. 

The ruling was highly technical and did not take into account Khalil’s constitutional arguments, including those about the First Amendment. Nor did they find that New Jersey was the improper venue for a habeas petition. Instead, the ruling turned on what is known as “subject matter jurisdiction,” whether a given court can even hear a type of claim. The Third Circuit panel ruled that the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) “channels ‘[j]udicial review of all questions of law … arising from any action taken or proceeding brought to remove an alien from the United States” into a single petition for review filed with a federal court of appeals.’” According to the ruling, this strips federal judges from having the ability to hear habeas petitions challenging immigration proceedings.

Since his arrest by ICE last year, Khalil has been at the center of two adjacent legal proceedings. As the Trump administration is trying to deport him, he has had removal proceedings before an immigration judge in Jena, Louisiana. Immigration judges are not part of the federal judiciary and work for the Department of Justice. Simultaneously, Khalil has challenged the constitutionality of his detention via a habeas petition in federal court. The government initially detained Khalil under a Cold War-era law that allowed the Secretary of State to expel someone from the country if the Secretary unilaterally determined their presence had adverse consequences for U.S. foreign policy. It later tacked on additional charges denied by Khail’s lawyers that he submitted a misleading immigration application in part failing to disclose information about his work with an UN agency working with Palestinian refugees.  On June 20, 2025, he was finally granted bail by a federal judge, as both proceedings carried on. For now he remains out on bail. 

Federal Court Places Restrictions on Trump-Rubio Ideologically Motivated Deportation Drive 

On January 22, 2026, U.S. District Judge William G. Young issued a ruling placing restrictions on the Trump Administration’s ability to deport noncitizens for pro-Palestinian speech. The ruling came as part of a landmark lawsuit brought by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) against the Trump administration. As previously reported in the Gaza First Amendment Alert, Judge Young found last year that the Trump administration had violated the First Amendment through a policy of “detaining, deporting, and revoking noncitizens’ visas solely on the basis of political speech, and with the intent of chilling such speech and that of others similarly situated.”

Having previously found the administration had violated the Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act, Young’s latest ruling stated the policy of viewpoint discriminatory immigration enforcement was “of no effect, void, illegal, set aside, and vacated.” Young also imposed a remedial sanction on the government. Under the sanction, any member of the AAUP or MESA during the litigation is entitled to a special hearing in federal court if they suffer an adverse immigration decision. It will be “presumed that the alteration in immigration status is in retribution for the exercise during the course of the present case of their First Amendment rights” unless the government provides evidence otherwise.  

U.S. Sanctions on Human Rights Expert Cited to Block Book Sales, University Appointments  

Citing U.S. sanctions, online retailer Amazon is coming under threats for selling the books of Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. Under the sweeping sanctions imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, engaging in any financial transaction with or providing services to the international expert without a license from the Office of Foreign Assets Control is banned.  

On December 29, 2025, Mark Goldfieder, director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, claimed on the social media site formerly known as Twitter that his organization had sent “notice to Amazon and others about potential sanctions-violations connected [to selling her new book]”, When The World Sleeps: Stories, Wounds, and Words of Palestine. The group is telling retailers that paying her royalties from the sale of her book would open them up to criminal penalties.

The group United Nations Watch had previously sent a six-page demand letter to Amazon in October of last year, in which they told Amazon that by providing “e-commerce platform for the marketing and sale of her publications and a personal Amazon page” to Albanese they had violated U.S. sanctions. 

Georgetown University has also removed Albanese as an affiliated scholar from its Institute for the Study of International Migration. In a statement, the center’s director Anna Maria Mayda said, “US institutions are prohibited by federal law from affiliating with individuals subject to US sanctions.”’

As previously reported in the Gaza First Amendment Alert, within his first three weeks in office, Trump invoked the International Emergency Powers Act to sanction the International Criminal Court over its investigations into Israeli war crimes. On July 9, 2025, citing this Executive Order, Secretary of State Marco Rubio specifically sanctioned Albanese. The impetus was a report by the Special Rapporteur on companies who are profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories. 

Sanctions can have broad impacts on speech. Citing the First Amendment, a federal judge enjoined Trump’s Executive Order from being enforced against two U.S. citizens working with the ICC to investigate human rights abuses not pertaining to the U.S. or Israel. The injunction does not apply to or impact the targeting of Albanese.

Congress passed an amendment to the International Emergency Powers Act prohibiting it from being applied to “information or informational materials.” UN Watch explicitly acknowledges this provision, but argues it does not cover commercial profiting from the sale of books. Nonetheless, under UN Watch’s theory that sanctions prohibit providing Albanese with tools for publishing, promoting, selling, and distributing publications and a personal page,” this would result in a de facto ban under pain of criminal prosecution of Albanese books.

Bicameral Bills Take Aim at Naturalized Citizens

Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) in the House and Eric Schmitt (R-MO) in the Senate have introduced new legislation that would make it easier for authorities to denaturalize people in the United States, called the “Stop Citizenship Abuse and Misrepresentation (SCAM)” Act. 

While press releases announcing the bills highlight fraud allegations in Minnesota, the text of the bill appears to give law enforcement a new weapon in their attacks on protesters in support of Palestine. The language enables the government to denaturalize anyone who “during the 10-year period beginning on the date on which he or she was naturalized under this chapter, associates with, conspires with, aids, or abets any foreign terrorist organization.” 

Opponents of Palestinian rights have long conflated support for the Palestinian cause with support for terrorism. This conflation has been central to the Trump administration’s surveillance, detention, and deportation of noncitizens for supporting Palestinian rights. Such conflations similarly have animated attempts in the Congress to create new powers to strip NGO of tax deductible status. Given this history, this provision is concerning. It is made all the more to the vague reference to “associates” with a foreign terrorist organization.

The House version, introduced earlier this week, has 42 cosponsors, all Republicans.

Chip Gibbons is the editor of the Gaza First Amendment Alert. Nathan Fuller contributed reporting, research, and analysis.