Constitutional Law

ACLU Video: "No Fly With Me"

By Rachel Myers, ACLU

Ayman Latif is a disabled U.S. Marine veteran living in Egypt with his wife and two young children. Adama Bah is a 22-year-old caregiver living in New York with asylum status that protects her from the persecution she would face if she returned to her native Guinea.

Ayman and Adama are both on the U.S. government's "No Fly List," barring them from flying into or from the United States or over U.S. airspace. Neither poses any security threat or has any idea why the government has put them on the list – or how to get off it. For Ayman, this means he has no way to get home to the United States where the rest of his family lives, and that his new daughter may never meet her grandparents. For Adama, this means never leaving New York on a plane, and the feeling of being trapped in the country where she was supposed to feel free.

Last week, Ayman and Adama joined the American Civil Liberties Union and eight other American citizens and legal residents in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the No Fly List process. Here are their stories.

Full post as published by Blog of Rights on July 08, 2010 (boomark / email).