A federal judge has ruled that the U.S. government’s terror watch list violates the constitutional rights of those on it. Judge Anthony Trenga from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia argued that the process for adding people to this list was “subjective.”
This ruling came after twenty-three U.S. citizens sued the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) over their inclusion on this list. They argued that the methods the U.S. government used to determine who belonged on the list were inaccurate, and resulted in many people being erroneously included while actual terror threats were left off it. The plaintiffs said that they had “suffered a range of adverse consequences without a constitutionally adequate remedy” because of this.
“There is no evidence, or contention,” Tenga wrote in his decision, “that any of these plaintiffs satisfy the definition of a ‘known terrorist.’ None have been convicted, charged or indicted for any criminal offense related to terrorism, or otherwise. Rather, Plaintiffs are included in the TSDB because they have been labeled as ‘suspected terrorists,’ a determination that this court has found ‘to be based to a large extent on subjective judgements.”
He also said that the TSC could use “a wide range of factors” to include someone on the list, including their “race, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.” – READ MORE