As we’ve been pointing out for years, the right to travel is not just a right under the First Amendment to the US Constitution (“the right of the people… peaceably to assemble”) but a human right guaranteed by an international treaty ratified by the US (“the right to freedom of movement”).

But what good is a “human right” guaranteed by international treaty if there is no independent entity to which you can complain, and which has the authority to enforce your rights?

At a minimum, what’s needed is the ability of people whose human rights have been violated by the US government to seek redress through US courts, and the ability of those courts to order the government to comply with its treaty obligations.

Given the US government’s current interpretation of many human rights treaties as not being “self-effectuating”, that would require legislation by Congress to effectuate those treaties by creating a cause of action for treaty violations and give US courts jurisdiction to hear such complaints.

That’s exactly what the UN Human Rights Committee concluded a year ago, following its periodic review of US implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR):

The State party [i.e. the US] should … Taking into account its declaration that provisions of the Covenant are non-self-executing, ensure that effective remedies are available for violations of the Covenant, including those that do not, at the same time, constitute violations of U.S. domestic law, and undertake a review of such areas with a view to proposing to the Congress implementing legislation to fill any legislative gaps.

In the year since this recommendation from the UNHRC, neither the Administration nor any member of Congress has proposed such effectuating legislation for the ICCPR or any other human rights treaty.

So in the meantime, where can you turn if your human rights are violated by the US government?

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John Brennan, the “Naked American Hero” who took off all his clothes at a TSA checkpoint at the Portland, Oregon airport, will finally have his day in a Federal court more than three years later.

Mr. Brennan was (falsely) arrested by Portland city police, acting at the behest of the TSA checkpoint staff, on April 17, 2012.  He was acquitted of criminal charges by a local judge, since nudity as a form of political expression has been held to be protected by Oregon’s state constitution.

But the TSA assessed a $500 administrative fine against Mr. Brennan for “interfering with screening”, notwithstanding both the Oregon court’s finding that his action was form of protected political expression and the fact that he never interfered with anyone at the TSA checkpoint. It was the TSA staff who chose not to search Mr. Brennan’s clothes after he took them off, not to complete his “screening” once they could see that he wasn’t carrying any weapons or explosives, and to shut down the entire checkpoint.

The TSA’s administrative decision to fine Mr. Brennan followed a kangaroo-court administrative hearing (held in a courtroom rented for the day from the US Bankruptcy Court), a decision by a so-called Administrative Law Judge (not actually a judge, but a DHS staff person rented from the US Coast Guard), and an administrative appeal to a TSA decision-maker designated by the head of the agency.

Throughout these administrative proceedings, the TSA and other DHS staff were forbidden to consider the Constitutionality or validity of the TSA’s regulations or actions.  Only after jumping through three years of these hoops is Mr. Brennan entitled to have a real judge of a real court assess whether the TSA acted lawfully or had any authority to impose a fine for actions such as Mr. Brennan’s.

In an effort to frustrate even this belated judicial review, Congress requires that it be conducted by a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, based on “deference” to the TSA and the TSA-supplied “administrative record” rather than an actual trial or any fact-finding by the Court of Appeals. (Our Freedom of Information Act request for the administrative record of the TSA’s proceedings with respect to Mr. Brennan is still pending and unanswered after almost two years.) But the Court of Appeals can now finally, at this stage, consider Constitutional and other objections to the legality of the TSA’s actions.

On November 14, 2014, Mr. Brennan filed a petition with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for that court to review the TSA’s order assessing a $500 fine against Mr. Brennan. The case in the 9th Circuit is John Brennan v. US DHS and TSA, docket number 14-73502.  Mr. Brennan is represented in the 9th Circuit by Michael Rose of Portland, the same attorney who successfully defended Mr. Brennan against the state and local criminal charges.

On March 2, 2015, Mr. Brennan’s attorney filed his brief asking the Court of Appeals to void the TSA fine, making the arguments he wasn’t allowed to make in the TSA administrative proceedings regarding the unconstitutional vagueness and other defects in the TSA’s regulations and actions.  Mr. Brennan’s brief was accompanied by excerpts from the TSA administrative record, although most of that record continues to be improperly withheld from disclosure by the TSA despite our FOIA request.

Following a written response from the DHS and TSA (the government has already asked for, and been granted, an extension of time), and a written reply from Mr. Brennan, the 9th Circuit will decide whether to schedule oral argument or make a decision solely on the basis of the written arguments.

Mr. Brennan is continuing to pay for his own legal representation. There’s more information here about how you can contribute to his legal defense and help spread the word about his case.

For only the second time, a would-be traveler has been given offical notice by the US government that they are not on the US “No Fly” list.

Just weeks before a scheduled March hearing in a Federal lawsuit brought by US citizen Jamal Tarhuni challenging his repeatedly having been prevented from boarding commercial airline flights, including flights back to his home in Oregon from overseas, the director of the DHS “Traveler Redress Inquiry Program” (DHS-TRIP) has sent Mr. Tarhuni the letter above, telling him that, “We have been advised that you have been removed from the No Fly List.”

The only previous time the US government has told anyone they weren’t on the no-fly list was last year, in response to a direct order from a Federal court in the case of Dr. Rahinah Ibrahim. Unlike Mr. Tarhuni, Dr. Ibrahim is not a US citizen, although one of her children was born in the US and is a US citizen. Dr. Irahim’s US visa has been revoked, so she can’t return to the US regardless of whether she is on the US no-fly list. The Supreme Court heard arguments earlier this week on whether State Department decisions to deny visas to family members of US citizens are subject to judicial review.

The DHS-TRIP letter to Mr. Tarhuni makes no promises about future actions, and doesn’t guarantee that he will be allowed to travel by air. He still doesn’t know why he was on the no-fly list in the first place. He could be put back on the no-fly list at any time (including, as happened to him before, while he is abroad), without notice or explanation. And even if he isn’t put back on the no-fly list, he could be refused permission to board any flight (again potentially including flights home to the US from abroad) based on real-time pre-crime profiling and risk scoring.

Presumably, the government will now seek to have Mt. Tarhuni’s complaint dismissed as “moot”.

The government is also likely to use its latest letter to Mr. Tarhuni as evidence in other pending no-fly cases, including those of Yonas Fikre (who is represented in his ongoing lawsuit by the same attorney as Mr. Tarhuni) and Gulet Mohamed.  So far as we know, Mr. Fikre is the only person who has been given official notice that he is on the US no-fly list, and not just constructive notice in the form of a denial of transportation by an airline. Mr. Fikre was denied asylum in Sweden, and, since he is still on the US no-fly list, was able to return to the US only because the Swedish government chartered a private jet to deport him.

The system of secret, extrajudicial no-fly orders is working, the government will claim, so the courts don’t need to  exercise oversight over the process. The government will argue that if DHS-TRIP and the government’s recently-revised “No Fly 2.0” procedures provide sufficient administrative due process, the courts don’t need to review the allegedly derogatory evidence (if any) supporting DHS and FBI no-fly decisions.