Suit Alleges US Citizens Targeted by DHS for Attending Religious Conference

In simultaneous news conferences yesterday, the New York Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on American-Islamic Relations announced a suit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on behalf of five Muslim-Americans who, along with dozens of other attendees, were detained, interrogated, fingerprinted and photographed on their return into the US from a religious conference in Toronto, Canada. The full complaint in the lawsuit alleges that plaintiffs were targeted solely because they had attended the Reviving Islamic Spirit Conference, a mainstream cultural and religious conference organized by college students. It is the largest Islamic conference in Canada and advocates peace, tolerance and unity. The complaint charges that these practices violated the plaintiffs' First Amendment free speech, assembly and free exercise rights as well as their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures and their rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.