US appeals court ruling allows lawsuit over NYPD surveillance of Muslims
A US federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit dealing with the New York police surveillance on Muslims on the pretext of fighting terrorism.
Based on the Tuesday ruling in the Philadelphia court, Muslim groups can pursue a civil rights lawsuit which accuses the NYPD of conducting secret surveillance on Muslims without suspicion of criminal activity.
The plaintiffs in the case, including Muslim religious leaders, business owners, and students, sued the NYPD in 2012, arguing the surveillance not only subjected them to discrimination but also threatened their careers and caused them to stop attending religious services.
US district court in Newark, New Jersey, threw out the case in February 2014 after the city had persuasively claimed that the surveillance was an anti-terrorism, not an anti-Muslim program.
In dismissing the lawsuit, US District Judge William Martini concluded at the time that the police could not keep watch on terrorist activities "without monitoring the Muslim community."
Plaintiff Farhaj Hassan said he was "extremely ecstatic" about the court's decision.
"I'm very happy we will get our day in court," said Hassan, a US Army sergeant who served in Iraq. "Muslim-Americans were the innocent community in this matter, and lo and behold their civil rights should be protected like everyone else."
The group’s lawyer, Baher Azmy, said Tuesday's ruling affirmed that police cannot use religion and courts cannot accept untested national security claims as justification for spying.
In a statement, a spokesman with the city’s law department said that officials were reviewing the case and declined to discuss next steps.
According to a Pew Research Center poll, 55 percent of American Muslims believe the US government's anti-terrorism policies have singled them out for increased surveillance and monitoring after a terrorist attack against the World Trade Center complex in New York on September 11, 2001.
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