2d Circuit Hears Oral Arguments In Muslim Border-Search Case

Yesterday, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Tabbaa v. Chertoff, a case challenging the lengthy detention and search by border agents of a large group of Muslim Americans returning from the 2004 Reviving the Islamic Spirit Conference in Canada. The trial court dismissed plaintiffs' complaint. (See prior posting.) Yesterday's International Herald Tribune, reporting on the oral arguments, said that the panel of judges seemed unsympathetic to arguments by appellant's New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer that the travelers were unconstitutionally singled out because they were Muslim. Department of Justice attorney Lewis Yelin said that the government has now changed its procedures for mass inspections at the border so that a senior supervisor must be involved where a person is detained for more than two hours.