By OLIVIA DIAZ and BEN FINLEY, Associated Press/Report for America

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The Trump administration told a federal judge Thursday that a Georgetown University scholar’s lawsuit against deportation should be moved from Virginia, where it was filed, to Texas, where he’s jailed over allegations of “spreading Hamas propaganda.”

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles seemed skeptical of the government’s request, which would involve her dismissing the case in Virginia. She raised concerns that a dismissal in her court would void her order in March to keep Badar Khan Suri in the U.S. while his First Amendment case plays out.

David Byerley, a Justice Department attorney, told Giles that he would need to talk to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement about the judge’s concern. Byerley said he didn’t see why ICE wouldn’t honor her order against deporting Khan Suri while the case is refiled in a Texas federal court.

“OK,” the judge said. “I’m not going to rely on that. But thank you.”

In a government filing before the hearing, U.S. attorneys argued that Khan Suri’s attorneys filed his suit in Virginia after he was already taken out of state. They said filing his case in Texas is “relatively straightforward application of well-settled law.”

The Trump administration said it quickly moved Khan Suri from a facility in Farmville, Virginia, because of overcrowding to a detention center in Louisiana and then Texas.

But the judge seemed skeptical of the government’s overcrowding claim. She asked the U.S. to provide details about the number of open beds in Farmville at the time of Khan Suri’s arrest as well as the number of people who’ve been transferred because of overcrowding.

Khan Suri’s attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union told the judge that once in Texas, Khan Suri slept on the floor of an overcrowded detention center for at the least the first few weeks. However, they said, he now has his own cell in Texas.

Khan Suri’s attorneys said the real reason he was moved to Texas was to bring the case before a more conservative judge. The attorney, Vishal Agraharkar, accused the government of what’s often called “forum shopping.”

Unlike the U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, federal district courts in Texas and western Louisiana are dominated by Republican-appointed judges. Win or lose, appeals of such cases go to the reliably conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 5th Circuit is one of 13 federal appellate courts around the nation and has 17 full-time judges. Twelve were appointed by Republican presidents, including six by former President Donald Trump.

Agraharkar’s statements before the judge in Alexandria were echoed by another attorney for Khan Suri, Hassan Ahmad, outside the courtroom after Thursday’s hearing.

“There is a reason why the detention facilities exist there,” Ahmad said, adding, “This kind of rigged game has to stop.”

Ahmad was among a group of people who gathered at the courthouse to show support. They included Khan Suri’s wife, Georgetown students and faculty and U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat who represents the northern Virginia district where Khan Suri lives.

Khan Suri’s lawsuit was filed shortly after masked, plain-clothed officers arrested him on March 17 outside his apartment complex in Arlington, Virginia.

His attorneys say he was unconstitutionally arrested and jailed because of his wife’s connection to Gaza. He and his wife, Mapheze Saleh, have been targeted because Saleh’s father worked with the Hamas-backed Gazan government for more than a decade but before Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Khan Suri’s attorneys say.

The ACLU said in the memo that Khan Suri hardly knew the father, Ahmed Yousef.

According to the U.S. government, Khan Suri has undisputed family ties to the terrorist organization, which Khan Suri “euphemistically refers to as ‘the government of Gaza.’”

Khan Suri’s arrest also stems from his social media posts about the war in Gaza, in which he expressed support of Palestinian people. Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin posted on the social platform X that Khan Suri was accused of “spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting antisemitism on social media” and was determined to be deportable.

The ACLU has argued that arrests on such grounds violated his First Amendment rights.

Khan Suri, an Indian citizen, came to the U.S. in 2022 through a J-1 visa, working at Georgetown as a visiting scholar and postdoctoral fellow. He and Saleh have three children: a 9-year-old son and 5-year-old twins.

Before his arrest, he taught a course on majority and minority human rights in South Asia, according to court records. The filings said he hoped to become a professor and embark on a career in academia.

Finley reported from Norfolk, Virginia.

Seventeen-year-old Agustina Pestel and her classmates don’t know exactly why their teachers nominated them to be student guides for Minnesota Supreme Court justices who visited the school Thursday.

But the junior at Highland Park Senior High School, who is interested in journalism and law, met Chief Justice Natalie Hudson along with other student representatives ahead of oral arguments at the school that morning.

“We just got to ask her a lot of questions about not just her personal life, but her life as chief justice, and what it was like in that position, and kind of the sacrifices she’s had to make throughout her life to get to that,” Pestel said. “And she explained a lot that she still gets those nerves, so she tries to bring a little humor into it sometimes.”

The Minnesota Supreme Court’s seven justices gathered at the St. Paul high school to hear the oral arguments on a civil commitment case.

Students Rosemary Egberg, center and Alice Verbrugge, right, listen to Associate Justice Sarah E. Hennesy of the Minnesota Supreme Court at Highland Park High School in St. Paul on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

30 years of school visits

The state Supreme Court first held oral arguments at schools in Rochester in 1995. Highland Park is the court’s 56th in-school visit for oral arguments.

The court tries to visit schools in all 10 judicial districts over the years, Hudson said. Ramsey County is in the Second Judicial District.

“We want our young people to be engaged citizens, and so this gives them an opportunity to see the judicial system at work,” Hudson said. “But it also (is) … as a service to our community as well. To … educate young people about the importance of the judicial branch, the work that we do in protecting rights, that there is a place for people to bring their grievances and how it is we go about resolving those matters in a democracy.”

High schools typically hear oral arguments for criminal cases, though the one at Highland was a civil case. The focus is on selecting cases that are interesting and accessible for students, Hudson said.

“But we try to find a case that has one issue, you know, no more than two, so that they can focus in on that. So something that we think high school students would be interested in and they care about so that they can see how that would relate to their lives,” Hudson said.

Volunteer lawyers and judges also visit classes ahead of oral arguments in order to help students understand what they will be hearing during arguments, she said.

“…We all love these opportunities, because it gets us out of the Capitol, where we hear most of our oral arguments, and gets us out into the community…Young people will ask and say all kinds of things, and that’s great,” Hudson said. “You want to hear what they’re interested in, or what they know about the court system and don’t know, and they’re always very inquisitive…”

Sen Nesje, 14, listens listen as attorneys make oral arguments during a case before the Minnesota Supreme Court in the Highland Park Senior High School auditorium in St. Paul on Thursday, May 1, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Hearing from students

After oral arguments concluded, students were able to ask justices about their work, work-life balance and their paths to the court. Later, the justices ate lunch with student representatives and visited classrooms.

Student representative and junior Lynex Lee, 16, sees law as something he might be interested in in the future.

“What I found intriguing about the judges were that some of them didn’t choose to go into being a judge in the first place, and they wanted to be like a lawyer or such,” Lee said. “And then I really felt that you don’t have to be set on one thing …”

Even for students who are not interested in studying law, it plays a role in other fields students will decide to go into, said junior and student representative Alfiya Jarso, 16.

“I think it’s cool because it’s important that we hear about things like this,” Jarso said. “But seeing things in real time and getting a better understanding of how the law system works, especially as students who are trying to find out what they want to be in the future, it’s very important to us that we can kind of experience that, see what we like, and watch it all go down.”

To view the event, go to spps.eduvision.tv/directplayer.aspx?q=63qDJvCLgfGNkbUQQdvNzQ%253d%253d.

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A simple, clean four-letter word has defined the Minnesota Wild all season, from the highs of a hot start, to the lows of a mess of midseason injuries, to the euphoria of finding a last-minute route to the playoffs, to the ups and downs of Round 1 versus Vegas.

Hard.

So, with the season literally on the line, and the Wild facing a “win or put away the blades for a few months” Game 6 versus the Golden Knights at Xcel Energy Center on Thursday, it was no surprise to hear coach John Hynes reiterating the innate difficulty — for both teams — of an elimination game.

“It’s hard to win,” Hynes said, meeting with reporters at TRIA Rink during his team’s optional morning skate at home. But he went on to clarify that the “hard” concept is applicable to everything, not just the happenings on a 200 foot-by-85 foot ice sheet.

“Whatever you choose, it’s not easy,” he said. “It’s hard to be in shape. It’s hard to be out of shape. It’s hard to win. It’s hard to lose. If you lose, there’s not a lot of fun that happens with that. But if you win, it’s hard to win, so you’ve got to be able to choose what you want to do.”

With Hynes noting that he does not feel momentum is a factor, despite Vegas winning the previous two games in overtime and grabbing the series lead Minnesota once held, he instead focused Thursday morning on the fact that the Wild have been playing desperate, backs-against-the-wall hockey for the past month or so. Just getting into the playoffs was hard, so the hard they prepped for on Thursday in Game 6 was, in a way, more of the same.

“Like at the end of the regular season for us, you’re going to come in and you’ve got to beat Vancouver,” Hynes recalled. “After you beat Vancouver, then you’ve got to beat Anaheim. Just because you beat Vancouver, the job’s not done.”

It’s the same in the other locker room, the coach said, where Vegas still needed a win in one of the final two games of the series to advance, which is the expectation every year of a fanbase that has never really known hard times since the franchise was born less than a decade ago.

Vegas went into Game 6 facing some of the same manpower challenges that bedeviled Minnesota much of the season, with the Golden Knights’ leading goal scorer Pavel Dorofeyev scratched from the Thursday night lineup after an injury (classified as day to day by Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy) that kept him off the ice for the end of regulation and the overtime in Game 5.

So with a series lead, the Knights went into Game 6 needing to find a way to close out Minnesota without a key player, which sounded like a hard task. In keeping with his season-long mantra, maybe that was just the way the Wild’s coach envisioned things playing out.

Okposo named to NHLPA staff

After closing out the on-ice portion of his hockey career with a Stanley Cup title a year ago, St. Paul native Kyle Okposo will be working to make life better for NHL players in his next chapter.

On Thursday, the NHL Players Association named Okposo, 37, as an advisor in business development and player engagement. After parts of two seasons with the Minnesota Gophers, Okposo went on to play more than 1,000 NHL games over a 17-season career. The bulk of his time was spent with the New York Islanders and Buffalo Sabres, but Okposo was traded to Florida late last season and played 17 games in the Panthers’ run to their first NHL title.

“I’m thrilled to join the NHLPA at this time of growth opportunities for the players,” said Okposo, in a statement. “I was involved with the PA over the course of my career, and I have seen first-hand the staff’s work on behalf of players. I am excited to add my perspective and experience to that work and further expand opportunities for NHLPA members.”

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A Minnesota State Patrol trooper has been charged with production of child pornography, the state’s U.S. Attorney Office’s announced Thursday.

Jeremy Francis Plonski, 29, was arrested on a federal warrant after being charged with one count.

Jeremy Francis Plonski (Courtesy of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office)

“The U.S. Attorney’s Office has zero tolerance for public officials who violate federal laws — particularly those laws that protect vulnerable children from sexual abuse,” said Acting U.S. Attorney for Minnesota Lisa Kirkpatrick in a statement. “… While donning his uniform, Plonski committed one of the most vile and predatory offenses imaginable.”

Court documents weren’t publicly available Thursday and it wasn’t immediately clear whether the alleged offense happened while Plonski was on or off-duty, or whether he has an attorney.

Plonski became a state trooper in 2022 and is on leave, with an internal affairs investigation underway.

“The allegations in this case are appalling and indefensible,” said State Patrol Col. Christina Bogojevic in a statement. “… No badge, no title and no position will ever place anyone above the law. Protecting the vulnerable is our duty. Anyone who violates that duty has no place in this organization or in our profession.”

The FBI investigated, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office also thanked the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and Shakopee police.

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