The U.S. government recently removed four law-abiding Muslim men from the no-fly list just days before a New York federal district court hears their case, scheduled for Friday.
Tanvir v. Lynch alleges that the FBI used the no-fly list to coerce Muslims into becoming informants on their community and that the government retaliated against them when they lawfully opted not to.
“The fact that the government has confirmed that all four of our clients now can fly really affirms our claims in this lawsuit that the only reason they were ever on a no-fly list is … they were refusing to be informants. There was never any valid reason for their placement,” said Diala Shamas, a senior staff attorney at CLEAR (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility) at the City University of New York School of Law, which brought the lawsuit along with the Center for Constitutional Rights and Debevoise & Plimpton. ...