Judge Orders Feds to Correct Woman’s Inclusion on No-Fly List

In an important ruling
yesterday, a federal judge declared that the government must
actually fix the problem when it puts people on its “no-fly”
terrorist watch lists when it turns out they have no reason to be
on them.

From the
San Jose Mercury News:

The federal government violated a former Stanford University
doctoral student’s legal rights nine years ago when it put her on
its secretive “no-fly” lists targeting suspected terrorists, a San
Francisco federal judge ruled Tuesday.

In a decision for the most part sealed, U.S. District Judge
William Alsup disclosed that Rahinah Ibrahim was mistakenly placed
on the controversial list and said that the government must now
clear up the mistake. The decision comes in a case that has for the
first time revealed how the U.S. Department of Homeland Security
assembles the no-fly lists, used to tighten security in the
aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The Obama administration has vigorously contested the case, the
first of its kind to reach trial, warning that it might reveal
top-secret information about the anti-terrorism program. As a
result, Alsup sealed his ruling until April to give the government
an opportunity to persuade a federal appeals court to keep the
order from being released publicly.

The administration’s efforts to “vigorously” contest the case
went so far as to ordering an airline to
not let Ibrahim’s daughter board a flight to San Francisco in
December to testify at the trial. Given the petty tactics used by
the feds in this case, one wonders if they even have any reason
other than “OMG! Terrorists!” to keep the order sealed. If, for
example, you were an actual terrorist, wouldn’t you
already know why you’re on the no-fly list and once you found out,
wouldn’t you be able to figure out what information the feds would
likely have on you to keep you from flying? Are the feds trying the
argue that the average terrorist has so many balls in the air −
like the evil mastermind in some television spy serial − that he or
she needs to sue the government to find out which ones they’ve
figured out? The existence of the no-fly list itself and the
discovery that one is on it provides enough information to create
concerns for any actual terrorist that the feds know something is
going on.

Or, like analysis of NSA’s bulk metadata collection program

shows, will public release of information about the “no fly”
list reveal it has not actually played any significant role in
stopping terrorist activity?

In August, a judge ruled that fliers are entitled to
due process and that the federal “no fly” list must have a
redress procedure to clear the names of people who shouldn’t be on
there.

(Hat tip to CharlesWT.)