Yeah, stirring up shit.
Yeah.
Here's a case where the ACLU is working to help Americans of any political stripe. If you consider this SUS, are you telling me you believe the people cited in this article should be without recourse?
From today's St. Petersburg Times, Florida's largest newspaper:
This list won't fly
A Times Editorial
Published April 11, 2004
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------http://www.sptimes.com/2004/04/11/Opinion/This_list_won_t_fly.shtml
Imagine being Michelle Green, a law-abiding citizen who has served her country for the last 15 years in the U.S. Air Force. When she tries to get on a commercial airplane, she is pulled out of line, delayed, publicly embarrassed and subjected to additional searches of her luggage and person.
Green is one of hundreds, if not thousands, of innocent passengers who have found themselves on a "no-fly" list maintained by the Transportation Security Administration. The list, created in November 2001 and periodically updated, has put innocent travelers into a netherworld of suspicion. People who find themselves on the "no-fly" list are persistently targeted as terror suspects without a dependable way to remove their names from the database. The list includes passengers who are barred from flying and others who are to be allowed to fly after being subjected to extra searches and interrogations
With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, a class-action suit was filed in federal court in Seattle on Tuesday on behalf of people caught in this web. The group of named plaintiffs include Master Sgt. Green, a retired minister, a college student and a couple of ACLU employees, among others, none of whom is associated with terrorists. The suit makes no request for money damages, but requests an end to the ordeal faced by passengers wrongly on the list. Some of them have been interrogated for up to three hours, had personal letters and papers read by security personnel and missed their scheduled flights.
The problems with this "no-fly" list are legion and have been widely reported for years. Unjustified secrecy surrounds it, adding to the difficulties of travelers. It took nearly a year for the government to even admit the existance of such a list, and now the government refuses to answer basic questions, such as what criteria are used to put people on it.
For a long time, people who complained about their predicament were told that to get off the list they would have to contact the FBI or the agency that put their name on the list - but then were not allowed to know what agency had done so. Now, some innocent passengers are directed to contact an ombudsman's office at the TSA. But even that doesn't guarantee results.
U.S. Rep. Jim Davis, D-Tampa, who found himself on the "no-fly" list for a while last year, successfully cleared his name by filling out a "Passenger Identity Verification Form" from the TSA. His story stands in contrast to other passengers who have filled out the same form, and had their identities verified, to no avail. They still confront embarrassing suspicion and extra searches whenever they fly.
A faulty list that directs airline and security personnel to scrutinize and harass innocent travelers not only fails to enhance security, it demonstrably hampers safety by squandering resources. The TSA has had more than two years to address the serious problems of due process associated with this list, but has not done so. Now a federal court will have to do it instead.
