For the first time ever, a lawsuit challenging a U.S. government “no-fly” order goes to trial on Monday. The U.S. government issues “no-fly” orders (or “no-board recommendations“, of which there were almost 10,000 last year) to airlines, forbidding common carriers from transporting specified persons. The administrative decisions to issue these orders are made in secret, […]
In a preliminary ruling in a lawsuit brought by the ACLU three years ago on behalf of a group of people who have been prevented by the U.S. government from traveling by air, a Federal judge in Oregon has found (1) that international air travel is a Constitutional right, and (2) that a categorical ban […]
In an important victory for judicial review of no-fly orders, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected the government’s motion to dismiss the case brought by Gulet Mohamed, overturned the transfer of the case from the District (trial) Court to the Court of Appeals, and sent the case back to the District Court for […]
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Chertoff said repeatedly in public speeches that government “no-fly” orders should not be subject to judicial review, and that has remained the position of the Obama Administration whenever the issue has been raised in lawsuits by people who have been prevented from flying. Rather than defend its decisions in the […]
What’s been most noteworthy in DHS legal arguments in “no-fly” and other related cases isn’t that the government has tried to argue in defense of intrusive and repressive surveillance and control of travel. Instead, the consistent strategy of the DHS has been to argue (1) that it doesn’t have to give any arguments or evidence […]
For the second time this year, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected jurisdictional and procedural challenges and claims of immunity, and remanded a case challenging “no-fly” orders for further proceedings on the merits of the plaintiff’s claims that their rights were violated by being prevented from flying. The decision last week in Latif […]
We’ve noted previously that, as the DHS increasingly relies on state and local law enforcement officers and private contractors to carry out its extrajudicial “no-fly”, search, and surveillance orders, those individuals and their employers face a growing risk of liability for their actions against travelers. Case in point: Ibrahim v. DHS et al. We’ve reported […]
[The following complete article (27 pages) or a summary of the key points (3 pages) can be downloaded in PDF format. Additional analyses and critiques of the proposed EU-US PNR agreement have been published by, among others, the Identity Project, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a coalition of US and EU NGOs.] FROM THE DESK […]
In a lawsuit filed today by the ACLU in Federal court in Oregon, Latif, et al. v. Holder, et al., ten U.S. citizens who have been refused permission to board flights to, from, or within the US, or have boarded flights to the U.S. only to have them turn back en route, are suing the […]
The most recently filed lawsuit to result from detention of a would-be traveler at a TSA checkpoint highlights an interesting pattern: While Federal departments themselves, and their agents in their official capacities, have thus far largely escaped legal liability for interference with travelers’ rights, multiple lawsuits against individuals who have enforced secret DHS directives — […]