By Hina Shamsi | 8 October 2018
ACLU — Imagine: You’ve never been charged with any crime, yet the government blacklists you as a terrorism threat and bans you from flying indefinitely. You’re separated from family members, can’t get to weddings or funerals or religious obligations, and lose jobs because you can’t travel or your employer finds out you’re blacklisted.
You know what the government has done violates your constitutionally protected ability to travel and to be free from false stigma. You have rights — the Constitution guarantees due process. So you ask the government for its reasons and evidence, as well as a live hearing to establish your credibility and innocence. In response, the government says it put you on the No Fly List because it predicts that you might commit a violent terrorism act in the future, but it won’t tell you all the reasons why or give you any evidence or the hearing you seek.
This is the Kafkaesque nightmare in which our clients on the No Fly List have been trapped for eight years. And it’s the unfair system we’re challenging on their behalf in an argument Tuesday before a federal appeals court in Portland, Oregon.
Throughout this long-running case, our clients have sought a fair process in order to clear their names and regain rights most Americans take for granted. […]
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