Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil may continue to challenge the legality of his arrest by immigration authorities in New Jersey, rather than in Louisiana where he is being held, a U.S. judge ruled on Tuesday.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Michael Farbiarz in Newark, New Jersey, means any appeals in the Palestinian activist's case will be heard by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a 6-6 split between active judges appointed by Republican and Democrat presidents, instead of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the country's most conservative appeals court.
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Khalil's case is seen in some quarters as a test of Republican President Donald Trump's efforts to deport pro-Palestinian activists who have not been charged with any crime. His lawyers say Trump's administration improperly targeted him for his political views and prominence in student protests.
The Trump administration said it has revoked the visas of hundreds of foreign students it says took part in the protests that swept college campuses decrying the U.S. government's military support of Israel.
The government says Khalil, 30, and other international students who take part are harming U.S. foreign policy interests.
The jurisdictional dispute arose because Khalil, a legal permanent resident who was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, spent several hours in a New Jersey detention facility after his March 8 arrest in neighboring Manhattan.
Khalil's defense lawyers said that made New Jersey an adequate forum for him to challenge the government's effort to deport him in a separate case in immigration court. But government lawyers argued that such cases, known as habeas corpus petitions, must be brought in whatever district a detainee is being held.
In a 67-page ruling, Farbiarz wrote that there was an exception to the general rule requiring habeas corpus petitions to be brought in the district of confinement in instances where that location is unknown.
Farbiarz wrote that failing to apply that exception would have meant Khalil "would not have been able to call on any habeas court. Not in Louisiana, New York, or New Jersey. And not anywhere else, either."
Khalil's lawyers have said that shortly after they learned he was taken to New Jersey, authorities told them he was in the process of being moved to Louisiana.
Khalil's lawyers have also asked Farbiarz to release him from jail while the case plays out, in part so he can be with his American citizen wife Noor Abdalla for the birth of their first child.
Abdalla's due date is April 28, according to a letter from her doctor filed in court.