On Tuesday, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing on what they refer to as the "censorship-industrial complex." One of the witnesses Democrats called delivered a fiery takedown of Republicans' complaints about censorship.
Judiciary Committee Republicans wrote on their website that the hearing was about "uncovering the Biden-Harris Administration's unconstitutional censorship campaign," and that their witness testimony would "examine upcoming threats to free speech including from AI and foreign governments." One Republican testimony was from Benjamin Weingarten — a contributor to far-right news site The Federalist — who maintained that President Donald Trump's pardon of January 6 rioters was a step in the right direction to end "the war on wrongthink."
However, George Washington University law professor Mary Anne Franks argued that the most egregious acts of censorship were being committed in real time by the Trump administration. In a 60-second video posted to Bluesky by Senate Judiciary Democrats, Franks described how Trump has "unleashed the greatest assault on the First Amendment since the Red Scare."
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"The censorship-industrial complex is a thought-terminating, gaslighting cliche that attempts to portray the most powerful people in the United States as oppressed and silenced," Franks said. "The current president of the United States is ordering lawful residents to be surveilled, kidnapped and expelled from the country because of their speech. He is attempting to dictate what words people are allowed to use, what educational institutions are allowed to teach, what values businesses are allowed to promote. He is calling for critics and dissenters to be imprisoned and assaulted. He is threatening journalists, students, judges, lawyers, religious leaders, governors, anyone he deems insufficiently loyal and insufficiently obedient."
As Franks noted, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has placed multiple noncitizens who are in the United States legally in deportation proceedings without charging them with any crimes. Last week, masked agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Georgetown University postgraduate Dr. Badar Khan Suri at his Virginia home and are attempting to deport him back to India, even though he's currently in the U.S. on a valid student visa. Suri's arrest came on the heels of ICE agents arresting Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, who is married to a U.S. citizen. The DHS is arguing that it has justification to deport Suri and Khalil under a statute allowing for any foreign national to be removed from the country if an administration believes that a specific individual poses a threat to its foreign policy. But attorneys representing Khalil and Suri have countered that their clients are being targeted for deportation proceedings due to their pro-Palestinian activism.
Earlier this week, legal permanent resident Yunseo Chung — a 21 year-old Columbia University student who has been in the U.S. since she was seven years old and has demonstrated for pro-Palestinian causes — sued the administration after ICE agents raided her dormitory. Court documents show that assistant U.S. attorney Perry Carbone said that Chung's green card had been revoked "due to the situation with the protesting." Chung's lawyers successfully argued that the Trump administration didn't have legal grounds to revoke Chung's legal residency, with a federal judge halting her detention on Tuesday.
"Trump's message could not be clearer: Either say what he wants you to say or you will be punished," Franks said during her Judiciary Committee testimony. "This is an attitude of a king and not a president. A man who has declared himself above the law, including the First Amendment."
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Watch the video of Franks' testimony below, or by clicking this link.
WOW. Watch a constitutional law expert completely DEBUNK Republicans’ censorship crusade, while articulating exactly how Donald Trump is threatening freedom of speech. 🔥
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— Senate Judiciary Democrats 🇺🇸 (@judiciarydems.senate.gov) March 25, 2025 at 7:57 PM