Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Hamas activist from Columbia University whose legal migrant status was revoked last month by the Trump administration, sued to block Columbia from turning over student disciplinary records for himself and other activists to a Republican-led House committee conducting an investigation.

On Friday, a federal judge rejected Khalil's request for a temporary restraining order against the school over threshold questions regarding the plaintiff's standing and alleged harm suffered, The Hill reported.

Meanwhile, Khalil remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody while awaiting a federal immigration judge's decision on whether he should be deported or not.

Request for a restraining order rejected

The GOP-led House Education and the Workforce Committee previously launched an investigation into the actions, or lack thereof, of Columbia University and other schools to address increasingly rampant antisemitism on college campuses, which included a request for those schools to turn over records for certain student activists and protest leaders.

Khalil, a leader of the anti-Israel encampment on Columbia's campus last year, filed a lawsuit to block the school from turning over the disciplinary records of himself and others to the committee, but according to The Hill, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, a Biden appointee, denied Khalil's request for a temporary restraining order on Friday.

The judge ruled that Khalil's motion failed to adequately address the question of standing to file the suit or to prove that he and others would face irreparable harm if the records were turned over.

The judge's decision

"But as plaintiffs all but conceded at last week’s hearing, the current complaint and motion papers fail to address some threshold requirements they need to satisfy to obtain this wide-ranging relief," Judge Subramanian observed in his rejection order, even as he allowed the plaintiffs to amend and refile their complaint.

The judge further noted that some requested records had already been turned over to lawmakers, albeit with student-identifying information scrubbed, and noted, "As to any further production of records, Columbia says it doesn’t intend to produce any at the present time. And for their part, the Congressional defendants aren’t currently asking for any further records."

In response to the ruling, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) issued a statement that celebrated the judge's decision.

"This is a victory for credible oversight. An injunction would interfere with a congressional investigation and handicap the functioning of the legislative branch of government under Article I of the Constitution," the congressman said. "The work to investigate antisemitism on our nation’s college campuses and develop legislative solutions will continue. Our Committee will not sit by idly as a wave of antisemitic threats flood our colleges and universities and interfere with students’ education."

Awaiting a decision on deportation

Meanwhile, NewsNation reported on Tuesday that Khalil was set to appear before a federal immigration judge in Louisiana, where ICE has detained him since his arrest last month.

He has argued that, as a green card-holding legal permanent resident, his First Amendment-protected rights have been violated and that he is being punished for engaging in free speech with his openly anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protest activities.

Yet, federal prosecutors disagree, and ABC News reported last month that Khalil was stripped by the Trump administration of his legal status because of allegations that he lied about his prior employment on his green card application form.

"Khalil is now charged as inadmissible at the time of his adjustment of status because he sought to procure an immigration benefit by fraud of willful misrepresentation of a material fact," a filing by prosecutors in the case stated, and later added, "Khalil's First Amendment allegations are a red herring, and there is an independent basis to justify removal sufficient to foreclose Khalil's constitutional claim."