Free speech for noncitizens

BOSTON — A federal court in Massachusetts denied federal agencies’ motion to dismiss all but one claim brought against them by collegiate education associations for allegedly enacting a policy to deport legal noncitizens who espouse pro-Palestinian beliefs, even when those beliefs do not support Hamas but merely oppose human rights abuses suffered by civilians in Palestine. “Noncitizens lawfully present in the United States have at least the core rights protected by the First Amendment, chief among them the right to speak on political subjects at least where such speech poses no immediate threat to others.”