Muslims, ACLU challenge the government's no-fly list

With terrorism fears heightened following the discovery of another plot to blow up a plane using an underwear bomb, the American Civil Liberties Union is trying to have one of the government’s tools against terrorism ruled unconstitutional.

The no-fly list has been around since 2003 and has grown to roughly 20,000 names, including about 500 U.S. citizens. It’s maintained by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, which also keeps a terrorist watch list with more than 500,000 names.

The ACLU filed suit in 2010 and will argue this week the case should be heard in U.S. District Court in Portland. “In the modern day, air travel is absolutely fundamentally important to how we travel on a daily basis,” says ACLU attorney Nusrat Choudhury, “and that right to travel is protected by the Constitution’s promise of due process.”

The case involves 16 plaintiffs who are all U.S. citizens and Muslims. They argue the government refuses to explain why they were put on the list. It’s a point the TSC does not dispute. An official told Fox News that telling people they’re on the list would “compromise security.”

“If terrorists knew they were on the list, they would change their identity or turn to an operative who may not be on the list to conduct an attack,” the TSC official said.

Jamal Tarhuni is one of the Americans on the no-fly list, and he says the feds got it wrong. The Oregon businessman only learned he was on the list when he tried to fly home to Portland from Tunisia. He had just completed a humanitarian visit to his native Libya with the Christian group Medical Teams International. They delivered water and medical supplies to victims of the country’s civil war.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/05/09/muslims-aclu-challenge-government-no-fly-list/#ixzz1uPN7e9bf