The lawsuit, argued by the American Civil Liberties Union, was filed in 2010 but dismissed by a federal judge who said her court didn’t have jurisdiction and the suit should have been filed against the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), rather than the FBI.
The suit is now before a US Appeals court with the ACLU arguing that it is the FBI that puts people on the no-fly list while the TSA simply applies the no-fly list.
The suit is the first broad challenge to the government’s no-fly list, which was established in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks to block anyone suspected of terrorist ties from boarding a flight to or from the US.
The group of 13 US citizens and two permanent residents—none of them Iranian-Americans—claim they pose no threat, and say their constitutional right to due process was violated when they were given no reason why they were included on the list.
Many of the Muslim Americans involved in the lawsuit have been prevented from visiting family or traveling for work, said Nusrat Choudhury, staff attorney at the ACLU national security project.
Several discovered they were on the list after getting stranded overseas when they were forbidden from flying back into the country.
Choudhury said, “Being unable to fly has severely affected the plaintiffs’ lives, including their ability to be with their families, go to school, and travel for work. Plaintiff Abe Mashal, a US Marine Corps veteran and dog trainer, has lost the business of clients located outside of driving distance from his home in Illinois. He told us: ‘I have no idea why I’m on the list. I should have the chance to clear my name and live my life normally. This has been a real hardship for me both personally and financially’.”
The secret no-fly list was established in 2003 under the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center. About 20,000 people are on the list — including 500 US citizens — for having or being reasonably suspected of having terrorist ties.
The FBI must have “articulable intelligence” to support that someone is a threat, a spokesman for the FBI screening center told the New York Daily News.
Choudhury said none of the plaintiffs in the case poses any threat to airline security. “They’re ordinary Americans like everyone else,” she said. “What happened to them could happen to anyone when the government operates a secret watchlist.”
FBI screening center policy is not to reveal who is on the no-fly list because terrorists who find out they’re on it could change their identity or find someone else to carry out a terrorist act in their place, said a screening center spokesman.
“Once you set a precedent you have to tell everybody,” he said.
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) regularly gets calls from Muslim Americans who were detained when trying to board a flight, MSNBC reported. Most don’t pursue legal action, and instead try to take a car, train or boat if possible, CAIR said.