The Trump administration has turned to the US Supreme Court in an effort to overturn a ruling that allowed Georgetown University scholar Badar Khan Suri to remain free after he was detained over his alleged involvement in pro-Palestinian activism.
The Justice Department is asking the justices to decide whether federal immigration law prevented a lower-court judge from ordering Suri’s release after he argued that his detention violated constitutional protections for due process and free speech.
Suri, an Indian citizen and postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown’s Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, was arrested by immigration authorities in March 2025. His detention came amid the administration’s broader campaign against foreign nationals involved in pro-Palestinian activism on US university campuses.
After being taken to Texas, Suri was released in May 2025 following an order from a district judge. The judge found that Suri was likely to succeed in demonstrating that his arrest had been carried out in retaliation for constitutionally protected speech.
The administration has maintained that the district court should not have intervened in the immigration case.
The dispute later moved to the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. In July, a 2-1 panel ruled that a federal judge could hear a challenge alleging unconstitutional detention even when deportation proceedings were continuing in immigration court.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer has now asked the Supreme Court to review that decision, arguing that it could interfere with immigration enforcement across the country by allowing detainees to challenge deportation-related actions outside the immigration court system.
In the filing, Sauer described the potential consequences as “practically disastrous.”
The administration also pointed to a conflicting ruling from another federal appeals court involving Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who attended Columbia University. That court previously overturned a decision that had resulted in Khalil’s release.
Khalil’s legal team has indicated that it intends to ask the Supreme Court to review that ruling. Sauer has urged the justices to consider both cases, saying a Supreme Court decision could settle the broader legal dispute.
Suri was living in Virginia with his wife, a US citizen, when he was arrested. He is a postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.
