A district court judge in Vermont had earlier ordered that the 30-year-old doctoral student be brought to the state for hearings to determine whether she was illegally detained. Ozturk’s lawyers say her detention violates her constitutional rights, including free speech and due process.

An appeals court on Wednesday ordered the federal government to comply with a lower court ruling to transfer Tufts University Ph.D. student Rumeysa Ozturk from a Louisiana detention facility to Vermont.