[IP] ACLU Files First Nationwide Challenge to "No-Fly" List, Saying Government List Violates Passengers' Rights
Delivered-To: dfarber+@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 06 Apr 2004 16:15:00 -0400
From: BSteinhardt <BSteinhardt@xxxxxxxx>
Dave,
Acting on behalf of seven Americans, including a member of the military, a
retired Presbyterian minister and a college student the ACLU has filed a
nationwide, class-action challenge to the government's "No-Fly" list.
The legal papers and other materials about the case can be found at
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=15430&c=272.
The suit, which was filed today in Seattle, asks a Federal Court to declare
that the No-Fly list violates airline passengers' Constitutional rights to
freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and to due process of law
under the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. The ACLU is also asking the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which administers the highly
flawed " No Fly" system, to develop satisfactory procedures that will allow
innocent people to fly without being treated as potential terrorists and
subjected to humiliation and delays.
Our suit makes plain, that the individuals we represent "are innocent of
any wrongdoing and pose no threat to aviation security." Indeed, even after
several obtained letters from the TSA stating that they were not a threat,
they were still subject to delays and the stigma of enhanced searches,
interrogations and detentions.
The No-Fly list has been the subject of intense media scrutiny. Yet the TSA
denied its existence until November 2002, shortly before the ACLU of
Northern California filed a Freedom of Information Act request on behalf of
two local anti-war activists who were told they were on such a list. When
the government failed to respond, the ACLU filed a lawsuit in April 2003
and obtained documents that reveal a shoddy process in which government
agents expressed uncertainty about how the lists should be shared. The
documents also failed to answer basic questions about the No-Fly list,
including how names are selected for the list. For more information on the
documents the ACLU obtained, readers can go to http://www.aclu.org/nofly
Beyond the repeated errors in administering the No-Fly program and the
inability of air travellers to have those errors corrected, many passengers
on the No-Fly list have expressed concern that they may have been singled
out because of their ethnicity, religion or political activity. Their
concern is heightened by the fact that the lists appear to have been shared
widely among U.S. law enforcement agencies, internationally and with the
U.S. military.
Barry Steinhardt
Director Technology and Liberty Program
ACLU
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