[News] Supreme Court Unanimous: American Muslims Placed on No-Fly List for Refusing to Spy on Their Communities Can Sue FBI Agents for Damages

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/supreme-court-unanimous-american-muslims-placed-no-fly-list


  Supreme Court Unanimous: American Muslims Placed on No-Fly List for
  Refusing to Spy on Their Communities Can Sue FBI Agents for Damages

------------------------------------------------------------------------

/December 10, 2020, Washington, D.C. –/ Today, the United States Supreme 
Court ruled unanimously that American Muslims who were placed or kept on 
the No-Fly List in retaliation for refusing to spy on their communities 
may sue individual FBI agents for interfering with their freedom to 
practice their religion. The men initially sued to be removed from the 
List. After years of being prevented from flying, and just days before 
the first major hearing in the case, the defendants issued each man a 
letter informing them they were no longer on the List. A judge then 
dismissed the remaining portion of their lawsuit, which sought damages 
for the emotional and financial harm the men had suffered, but a federal 
appeals court reinstated the case. The Trump administration appealed to 
the Supreme Court, which ruled today that the men may sue for damages.

“It is a soaring feeling,” said *lead plaintiff **Muhammad Tanvir.* 
<https://ccrjustice.org/muhammad-tanvir> “I made my life in this 
country, so this is important not just for me, but for everybody. I 
don’t want the same thing that the FBI did to me to happen to others.”

After repeatedly refusing FBI requests to spy on their Muslim 
communities — among other things, to visit online Islamic forums or 
attend certain mosques and “act extremist” — and after years of flying 
without incident, Muhammad Tanvir, Jameel Algibhah, Naveed Shinwari, and 
a fourth man who did not join in the appeal discovered they were not 
permitted to board flights. FBI agents told each man he would be able to 
get off the No-Fly List if he agreed to work for the FBI. The FBI's 
focus on the men had nothing to do with any criminal investigation.

The men argued that the FBI agents abused the List, placing them on it 
not because they posed any threat to aviation security, but in order to 
coerce them into being informants on their communities, thereby 
violating their religious rights. The case was brought under the 
Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) and other statutes. The men and 
their attorneys say it is not enough simply to remove the men from the 
List; they say accountability for abuses by FBI agents is necessary to 
prevent those abuses from happening again.

According to the unanimous decision, “A damages remedy is not just 
‘appropriate’ relief as viewed through the lens of suits against 
Government employees. It is also the only form of relief that can remedy 
some RFRA violations. For certain injuries, such as respondents’ wasted 
plane tickets, effective relief consists of damages, not an injunction.”

“The Supreme Court today vindicated our clients’ courageous stand for 
their religious freedom as Muslims who would not spy on their own faith 
community,” said*Ramzi Kassem* 
<https://www.law.cuny.edu/faculty/directory/kassem/>*, Professor of Law 
and Director of the **CLEAR* <https://www.cunyclear.org/>*(Creating Law 
Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) Clinic at CUNY School of 
Law*, who argued the case before the Court. “The Court’s unanimous 
decision also sends a clear message to FBI agents who should think twice 
now before abusing the power to put people on the No-Fly List.”

As a result of their placement on the No-Fly List, for years the men 
were unable to see spouses, children, sick parents, and elderly 
grandparents who are overseas. They lost jobs, were stigmatized within 
their communities, and suffered severe financial and emotional distress.

Said *Baher Azmy* 
<https://ccrjustice.org/home/who-we-are/staff/azmy-baher>*, Legal 
Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights*, “We are gratified 
that our clients’ brave fight for recognition and accountability for 
these abuses of law enforcement power can continue in the courts. This 
decision sends a message that the FBI cannot continue to assume they can 
act with impunity in surveilling, harassing, and punishing the Muslim 
community, and other vulnerable communities federal law enforcement 
entities seek to target.”

Advocates say the FBI’s abusive behavior in this case is just one 
example of the profiling, targeting, and harassment of Muslims by law 
enforcement and other government officials, which also includes 
extensive surveillance and infiltration of their religious communities 
and spaces, including mosques; holds on immigration status and other 
benefits; and the Muslim Ban.

“Today’s decision is a victory for religious communities against 
improper government intrusion,” said *Jennifer R. Cowan, Pro Bono 
Counsel at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP*, “and it is the result of our 
clients’ determination to stand up for their rights. We look forward to 
continuing this fight in the district court.”

/Tanvir v. Tanzin/ 
<https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/tanvir-v-holder> was 
brought by the CLEAR Project, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and 
co-counsel at the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP.

/The //CLEAR project/ <https://www.cunyclear.org/>/(Creating Law 
Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) is based out of Main Street 
Legal Services, Inc., the clinical arm of CUNY School of Law.  CLEAR’s 
mandate is to serve Muslim and all other clients, communities, and 
movements in the New York City area and beyond that are targeted by 
local, state, or federal government agencies under the guise of national 
security and counterterrorism./

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863-9977
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20201210/02fd361f/attachment.htm>