If you’ve been following, I’ve been covering the case of Rahinah Ibrahim, the university professor who was accidentally placed on the no-fly list — which came with a whole host of other issues — because an FBI agent accidentally checked the wrong box. This woman was forced to go to court to correct this obvious mistake, because either the government was embarrassed or, perhaps, simply doesn’t care.
The case was a circus, with the government attempting to protect her inclusion on the list as a “state secret,” in addition to being classified. This argument was sternly rebuked by the judge. The government also blocked a witness for the plaintiff from entering the country. The judge’s ruling on that is largely redacted. In the end, the judge ruled in favor of Dr. Ibrahim and ordered that she be removed from any lists she found herself on as a result of the FBI’s error.
The government’s time frame to file an appeal has now expired, and so Dr. Ibrahim’s case is finally over. It has now been demonstrated that there is a right to due process with the no-fly list, and the government cannot simply take away your right to travel and say, “sorry, that’s a secret.” Those redactions may also be short-lived, and we may get a fuller story soon, as the judge found that his ruling should not be redacted and agreed to keep his conclusions a partial secret only pending appeal. It will be exciting to have the final pieces of this story laid out.
Professional Troublemaker ® 
A victory.
And who really thinks TSA will comply with this courts ruling?
TSA has a demonstrated abject aversion to obeying law. I see no reason to expect anything different this time around.
EXACTLY. That was my question! ‘Is the TSA going to comply?’.
TSA is just like the IRS. They always want to have it both ways.
A Tour of the TSA’s “TSA Systems Integration Facility”
https://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/tour-tsas-testing-facility
Two And A Half Years After Being Racially Profiled by TSA, A First Victory:
More than two years ago, on September 11, 2011, Shoshana Hebshi, was stuck on a grounded airplane in Detroit. At first she thought they were just waiting for our gate to clear, but then the plane taxied to an isolated part of the tarmac. Police vehicles appeared, and many men in uniform and plainclothes huddled in conversation near the plane. Nervous and antsy, she watched them through the window at my seat…
Read More:
https://www.aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/two-and-half-years-after-being-racially-profiled-first-victory
Thanks for the info. John
Do travelers have a right to leave airport security screening areas without the TSA’s permission?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/04/06/do-travelers-have-a-right-to-leave-airport-security-screening-areas-without-the-tsas-permission/
TSA fines “Naked American Hero” $500
The TSA has assessed a $500 civil penalty against “Naked American Hero” John Brennan, who removed all his clothes at a TSA checkpoint at the Portland, Oregon, airport in 2012 to show that he wasn’t carrying any weapons or explosives and in protest of the TSA’s practices.
Mr. Brennan was arrested at PDX airport by Portland police on April 17, 2012, but he was found not guilty of criminal charges in June 2012 by a county judge on the grounds that, under local Portland ordinances and Oregon state law, nakedness for purposes of political protest is not a crime.
READ MORE:
http://papersplease.org/wp/2014/04/05/tsa-fines-naked-american-hero-500/
This Harrowing Tale of How Our Secret State Works to Crush Our Rights Will Chill You to the Bone:
Rahinah Ibrahim is a slight Malaysian woman who attended Stanford University on a U.S. student visa, majoring in architecture. She was not a political person. Despite this, as part of a post-9/11 sweep directed against Muslims, she was investigated by the FBI. In 2004, while she was still in the U.S. but unbeknownst to her, the FBI sent her name to the no-fly list.
Ibrahim was no threat to anyone, innocent of everything, and ended up on that list only due to a government mistake. Nonetheless, she was not allowed to reenter the U.S. to finish her studies or even attend her trial and speak in her own defense. Her life was derailed by the tangle of national security bureaucracy and pointless “anti-terror” measures that have come to define post-Constitutional America. Here’s what happened, and why it may matter to you.
READ MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/visions/harrowing-tale-how-our-secret-state-works-crush-our-rights-will-chill-you-bone
The Airlines Get Worse, and Traveler Complaints Fall:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-04-07/as-airline-quality-ratings-worsen-traveler-complaints-fall
Airline Quality Rating 2014 (Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University)
http://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=aqrr
http://nypost.com/2014/04/10/mute-stroke-victim-barred-from-lax-flight-forced-on-8-hour-bus-ride/
another way to become a non flyer.
The 4th., Amendment and Airport Security, cont’d
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2014/04/10/the-fourth-amendment-and-airport-security-contd/
Attys. for Rahinah Ibrahim asked a federal judge to have the U.S. gov’t. pay them nearly $4 million for continued “evidence of bad faith”
http://www.courthousenews.com/2014/04/18/67179.htm
Lawsuit Accuses FBI Of Using No-Fly List To Get American Muslims To Become Informants:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/22/fbi-no-fly-list_n_5194777.html
Muslim Americans Who Claim FBI Used No-Fly List to Coerce Them Into Becoming Informants File Lawsuit:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/4/24/muslim_americans_accuse_fbi_of_placing
Two Civil Rights Groups Sue TSA Over No-Fly List:
CLEAR and the Center for Constitutional Rights, sued US federal agents, officials and agencies last week on behalf of four American Muslim men with no criminal records who were approached by the FBI in an effort to recruit them as informants. One of them was asked if he would go to online Islamic forums and “act extremist,” while another was asked whether he would travel to Pakistan for the FBI. And the agents don’t beat around the bush. As one agent told our client who had turned to his elected representatives for assistance: “The Congressmen can’t do shit for you; we’re the only ones who can take you off the list.”
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/05/spying-no-flying-201457125644834437.html