Vol. 76/No. 21      May 28, 2012

The 15 plaintiffs—all U.S. citizens or permanent residents—learned they were on the “no fly” list when they were blocked from getting on a plane, many when they were already traveling overseas and were prevented for months from being able to return to the U.S. They attempted later to challenge being placed on the list, but in practice found it impossible to do so.

The government’s secret “no fly” list was created in 2003 and is run by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center. The government says that there are some 20,000 people on the list, the Wall Street Journal reported May 10. About 500 are U.S. citizens. The number of people on the list has doubled since 2009.

The program was created under President George W. Bush and has continued under President Barack Obama, with broad bipartisan backing.

“It is unconstitutional for the government to put people on secret lists and deny them the right to travel without even basic due process,” said Nusrat Choudhury, the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Security Project staff attorney who argued the case, in a press release.

The plaintiffs include four U.S. military veterans; Mohamed Sheikh Abdirahman Kariye, the Imam of the Masjed As-Saber Islamic Center in Portland; and Adama Bah, a woman from Guinea who was granted political asylum in the U.S.

Two of the plaintiffs said that after being barred from flying they were contacted by the FBI and told they would be taken off the list if they would agree to become informants for the agency in their communities.

The suit names as defendants Attorney General Eric Holder, FBI Director Robert Mueller and Timothy Healy, director of the Terrorist Screening Center. In May 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown threw the case out, agreeing with government arguments that the court did not have jurisdiction.

The three-judge appeals court panel will rule later on the ACLU motion to reinstate the case.
 
 
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