From free speech to religion and press - Trump admin violated rights in 75 rulings

The US president, Donald Trump, repeatedly campaigned for a second term as a champion of free expression and vowed in his January 2025 inaugural address to stop what he described as years of “government censorship”. A wave of court decisions since then has concluded that his administration acted in the opposite direction, with judges repeatedly finding that it chilled or suppressed the speech of citizens and groups opposed to the Republican president’s agenda.Reuters identified 75 rulings by federal judges that found the Trump administration had infringed First Amendment rights, including freedoms of speech, religion and the press. The pushback on constitutional grounds was unprecedented.“The President’s palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans’ freedom of speech,” William Young, a Boston-based US district judge, wrote.