Various Challenges To Terrorism Watch List Practices Can Move Ahead

In El Ali v. Barr, (D MD, July 20, 2020), a Maryland federal district court allowed some of the plaintiffs to move ahead with challenges to practices involving inclusion on terrorism watch lists. The court explained:

Plaintiffs are 39 individuals—37 U.S. citizens and two legal residents—who claim that inclusion in the Government’s Terrorism Screening Database (“TSDB”) and various related Watchlists impair or prohibit air and land travel in the United States. Plaintiffs allege that their list status, or status by association with those on a list, subjects them to constitutionally impermissible detentions, searches, and screening at airports and land border entries, or in some cases, denial of air travel altogether. Relatedly, Plaintiffs allege that their list status has burdened their families and businesses, and inflicted other wide-ranging harms.

Among the claims that can move ahead are claims of intentional religious and racial discrimination, as well as Religious Freedom Restoration Act complaints that individuals were interrogated about their Muslim religious practices, and that interrogations and detentions interfered with the ability to perform Umrah and Hajj. The court dismissed the claim that offers to clear up plaintiffs' problems if they would act as FBI informants imposed a substantial burden on their religious exercise. CAIR issued a press release announcing the decision.