WASHINGTON – A federal court ruled Monday that Hoda Muthana, a woman who fled Alabama in 2014 to marry an Islamic State fighter in Syria, does not deserve special treatment as part of her quest to returnto the United States with her 18-month-old son.

The ruling means her case will not be fast-tracked, something her lawyer had requested.

The Trump administration has barred Muthana, 24, and her son from returning to the U.S., contesting her claim to U.S. citizenship in a move that, if successful, could have serious and far-reaching implications for American citizens all over the world.

Charles Swift, an attorney for the Muthana family, argued in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., that she was in a "precarious position" in Syria and needed to be returned with her son to the U.S. to avoid "dangerous conditions."

Muthana's family wanted her case to be expedited and Swift raised the prospect that she could be "recaptured" or killed by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS. However, Judge Reggie Walton said there was no concrete evidence that Muthana would face "irreparable harm" if her case was not fast-tracked.

The case will now proceed at a normal pace, although Walton seemed favorable to the legal arguments made by the Muthana family's attorneys.

"The judge’s comments certainly foreshadow the ultimate outcome of this case," Swift told reporters after Monday's hearing. He said he was "very encouraged" the case would be resolved in Muthana's favor.

Hoda's father, Ahmed Ali Muthana – a former diplomat at the United Nations for Yemen who is a naturalized U.S. citizen – filed the lawsuit earlier this month seeking to overturn the Trump administration's determination that Muthana was never an American citizen in the first place, thus denying her right to re-enter the country.

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Muthana joined the Islamic State after telling her parents she was going to Atlanta as part of a field trip connected with her studies at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Instead, she withdrew from college and used her tuition reimbursement to purchase a plane ticket to Turkey. She traveled from there to Syria.

In Syria, she twice married Islamic State fighters who later died in combat. In December of last year, she fled to a refugee camp, as the Islamic State lost control of its territory in Syria and Iraq.

While in Syria, Muthana called for the death of Americans on social media and spread propaganda about the militant group. Now, she says she was brainwashed, has expressed remorse and is willing to face the U.S. justice system and serve jail time.

Swift said her renunciation of the Islamic State has put her in danger within the refugee camp. He said she has already been moved to a new camp but still faces threats.

"Within these camps are ISIS supporters" who now view her as a heretic who must be killed, the attorney said. "So she faces significant danger from them."

But the judge said there was too much speculation – about the situation in Syria and Muthana's status in the refugee camp – to justify speeding up the case.

The government now has about two months to respond to the underlying questions presented in the family's lawsuit, which turn on when Ahmed Ali Muthana lost his diplomatic immunity and whether his daughter is a U.S. citizen. Swift said he expects Walton will issue his ruling in a matter of months.

The Trump administration has determined Muthana, who was born in New Jersey, never qualified for U.S. citizenship because her father was a diplomat at the time of her birth. A person born in the U.S. to a foreign diplomat is not subject to U.S. law and is also not automatically a U.S. citizen at birth, according to the Immigration and Nationality Act.

But Swift, director of the Constitutional Law Center for Muslims in America, a Texas-based group representing Ahmed Ali Muthana, says that Hoda Muthana was born after her father left diplomatic service. A family representative shared her birth certificate and an official U.N. document with USA TODAY that seems to substantiate their claim, and their attorneys say U.S. immigration authorities issued Muthana a U.S. passport based on these documents – twice.

The U.S. government now says these passports were issued in error and that it has documentation of its own that proves Muthana's father still enjoyed "diplomatic services" when his daughter was born.

"She’s a terrorist," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told USA TODAY over the weekend. "She put American soldiers’ lives at risk. You ask the family members, those soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines all across world, who were serving, trying to take down the threat from radical Islamic terrorism. ... We’ve lost American life. And this woman, this woman chose to use her life to try and kill those people."

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During Monday's hearing, Walton seemed to agree that Ahmed Ali Muthana's diplomatic status ended before his daughter was born, but that the U.S. didn't receive notification of his termination until later.

Swift said that under the State Department's argument, ex-foreign diplomats in the U.S. would be free to commit horrific crimes without fear of prosecution as long as their home countries didn't send official notification of their termination.

"The government’s position is that a diplomat retains immunity until its country tells the U.S. that they’ve been terminated. (So) they’re free to terminate them and then have that individual go out and commit all kinds of criminal acts – such as espionage, sabotage, murder, maiming," Swift told reporters after Monday's hearing.

"The government’s position is incredibly shortsighted," he said. "And instead of protecting us from danger, it opens us to almost continuous danger."

Walton said that was a "valid argument" and suggested he shared Swift's concerns about the implications of deciding that Muthana's diplomatic status did not expire until the later date.

Swift also argued that only the courts – not the executive branch – could decide the citizenship question. The plaintiffs earlier blasted the Trump administration's decision as a "unilateral" move designed to bypass the legal process.

"Wish though they might, neither the secretary of state nor even the president of the United States have the power to determine an individual’s citizenship by fiat," says Steve Vladeck, a law professor at the University of Texas.

The case also raises questions about some of the protections American citizens, especially immigrants who become American citizens or U.S. nationals who commit crimes or partake in potentially treasonous activity abroad, enjoy under the law: Should they be entitled to due process? Is there a higher burden to prove their citizenship?

Walton, the judge handling the case, is a George W. Bush administration appointee who has handled high-profile national security cases in the past. He presided over the trial of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. Libby was former Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

The case mirrors that of Shamima Begum, a woman from London who joined the Islamic State in Syria four years ago at age 15. She, too, has a young son and wants to return home to Britain, but the British government is trying to stop her.

Hassan Shibly, a Florida-based legal representative for the family, said Muthana wants to return to the U.S. to take responsibility for her actions, and for the sake of her son. Muthana has said she realizes she would probably be charged with terrorism-related charges and could go to prison if she's allowed to come back.

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The Trump administration's position on Muthana's status has won plaudits among some residents of the suburban city of Hoover, Alabama, where Muthana went to high school, and where her family still lives.

"She’s not welcome in Hoover as far as I’m concerned," said John Lyda, a city councilman. He said city residents were aghast at Muthana's decision to move to Syria.

"It was so against everything this community stands for," he recalled, adding: "We're in the heart of the Bible Belt. ... It's a very patriotic and nationalistic town."

Frank Brocato, Hoover's mayor, said Muthana "posed a threat to Americans."

According to social media posts compiled by the Middle East Media Research Institute, a Washington-based press monitoring group, Muthana said of Americans in 2015 in a now-suspended Twitter account: "Go on drive-bys and spill all of their blood, or rent a big truck and drive all over them. Veterans, Patriot, Memorial etc Day parade."

The Washington-based Pew Research Center estimates there are about 3.3 million Muslims living in the U.S., which means they make up about 1 percent of the total U.S. population. Hoover has a population of more than 84,000 people. It's about 70 percent white, 17 percent African-American and has smaller Asian and Hispanic populations. In Alabama, less than 1 percent of adults identify as Muslim, according to Pew.

Muthana graduated from Hoover High School, which billed itself as "America's high school," in 2013. Lyda said that he doesn't know Muthana's family personally.

But from what he has heard, he said Hoda seemed to excel at school and did not have problems fitting in socially. Lyda said that Hoda Muthana's remorse does not sway him, although he acknowledged the emotional pull of her circumstances.

"My heart breaks" for her parents, he said. "They're doing something that as a parent, I would do as well. I would be fighting with every ounce of my being to bring either of my children home, even if they made the decision she did."

"She made a choice, when she was 20-years-old, to join one of the world’s foremost enemies of America," he said. "The decision she made is indeed a mistake and one that she will live the consequences of for the rest of her life. Regrettably it’s (also) one her 18-month-old son is going to have to live with the rest of his life."

Hjelmgaard reported from London.