ACLU settles no-fly list case with US government News
ACLU settles no-fly list case with US government

[JURIST] Two US agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] and the Transportation Security Administration [official website], have agreed to pay the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) [advocacy website] $200,000 in attorneys fees to settle a case brought by the civil rights organization in 2003 challenging the government's no-fly list and requesting the disclosure of records [PDF complaint; ACLU case materials]. More than 300 pages of redacted government documents were released through the ACLU's suit. At first the government balked at attempts by the to obtain the documents, but then relented after the federal judge overseeing the case chastised defense attorneys for stonewalling the process [JURIST report]. The documents noted that construction of the list was based on "two primary principles," but that there were "no hard and fast" rules governing decisions of who was put on the list. The case also uncovered that the list grew from 16 names before the attacks to nearly 600 by December, 2001, and is now believed to contain thousands of names. AP has more.