A "widespread, McCarthyite censorship" campaign by the Trump administration led to the suppression of pro-Palestinian speech at colleges and universities across the nation, a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International concluded.
The report, titled "Student Speech Under Attack: Suppression of Pro-Palestine Speech and Dissent on Campus," stems from a two-year investigation of incidents at 46 public and 34 private university and college campuses across 28 states and Washington, DC. The findings were based on analyses of school policies and records, federal officials’ statements, court records and interviews, among other materials, according to the report.
It documented what it called "heavy-handed and excessive responses"
by certain college and university administrators to widespread campus protests that followed the start of the Israel-Hamas war.
President Donald Trump has made combatting antisemitism a key initiative in his second term, which has led to a number of legal conflicts with colleges and universities the administration has accused of not doing enough to protect Jewish students amid pro-Palestinian protests.
Combatting antisemitism is a "worthy goal," the report said, but it called the administration’s interpretation of what constitutes harassment "overbroad" and said it has "(forced) universities to censor political speech the administration cannot constitutionally restrict."
Colleges and universities are in a "difficult" position when it comes to trying to uphold free speech while also avoiding the ire of the Trump administration, Jennifer Turner, principal researcher in the ACLU’s Human Rights Program, told USA TODAY.
But ultimately, she said schools "must stand up to the Trump administration’s attacks" and defend higher education campuses as forums for "free-flowing inquiry and debate."
USA TODAY reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump administration efforts target protected speech, report says
Though the research about suppression of pro-Palestinian speech began under former President Joe Biden’s administration, Turner said Trump’s return to office took the issue to "unprecedented" heights.
The report referenced what it described as the administration’s "ideological deportation policy" to retaliate against noncitizens for pro-Palestinian speech, echoing an argument the American Association of University Professors made in its 2025 lawsuit against the administration over the alleged policy. The ACLU, along with several of its chapters, filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the case.
A district judge ruled against the administration in the lawsuit, accusing federal officials of using immigration law to target individuals "with the goal of tamping down pro-Palestinian student protests and terrorizing similarly situated non-citizen – and other – pro-Palestinians into silence."
The ACLU report pointed to numerous attempts by the administration to deport individuals who had publicly supported Palestine. They included the case of activist Mahmoud Khalil, who was detained in March 2025 after leading anti-Israel protests on Columbia's campus. He was released from federal custody in June 2025.
It also referenced Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student who was arrested in Boston in March 2025 after writing an opinion article for the school’s student newspaper that criticized the university's response to the Israel-Hamas war. She was later released and reached a settlement with the Trump administration earlier this year.
"The government’s policy has characterized pro-Palestinian advocacy and speech critical of Israel as antisemitic and 'pro-Hamas,' without acknowledging that the speech it is targeting it lawful and constitutionally protected," the report said.
A call for universities to 'resist' political pressure
It also identified a handful of schools as having "particularly problematic" responses to student protests.
More than 100 students were arrested at encampments set up at Columbia University to protest the ongoing war in Gaza in April 2024, an event the report called a "watershed moment" that prompted scores of other encampments to be established nationwide and resulted in "swift and punitive responses" from school leaders.
Amid the Trump administration’s threat to revoke hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding from Columbia University, the school settled with the Trump administration in July 2025. Many First Amendment advocates and civil liberties organizations criticized the agreement.
The ACLU report called for schools to "resist the pressures placed on them by politicians seeking to exploit campus tensions to advance partisan agendas."
"Universities must stand up to such intimidation and defend the principles of academic freedom so essential to their integrity and mission," it said.
USA TODAY reached out to Columbia University for comment.
The ACLU has filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration during the president's second term, many of which center on alleged First Amendment violations. One week before the report published, the ACLU – along with other advocacy groups – brought a class action lawsuit against the National Institutes of Health on behalf of researchers who say the agency has unconstitutionally blocked grants for projects that don’t reflect the administration’s views on a number of topics, including gender identity and climate change.
BrieAnna Frank's role covering First Amendment issues at USA TODAY is made possible by a collaboration among Freedom Forum, Journalism Funding Partners and the USA TODAY Network. Freedom Forum does not provide editorial input. Reach BrieAnna at bjfrank@usatoday.com and @brieannafrank on X and Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Report details 'McCarthyite' crackdown on campus speech
