Legal News

Brooklyn?s Judge Block Rules Arab Men Wrongly Detained at JFK

By Amir Efrati

It must have been mighty hard being an Arab traveling by plane in the U.S. following the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

But in light of 9/11, is ethnicity a valid reason for arresting certain air travelers? No, according to Frederic Block, a federal judge in Brooklyn. Click here for the AP story and here, here and here for previous LB coverage of the colorful Judge Block.

In a ruling issued earlier this week, Block disagreed with the government’s argument to throw out the case, saying 9/11 did not justify tampering with Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

“Fear cannot be a factor for the evisceration of the bedrock principle of our Constitution that no one can be arrested without probable cause that a crime has been committed,” he wrote.

The judge called the ruling the first post-9/11 case “to address whether race may be used to establish criminal propensity under the Fourth Amendment.”

The U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn is still considering whether to appeal the decision.

The case was brought by Tarik Farag and Amro Elmasry, who were held for four hours on Aug. 22, 2004, following a flight from San Diego to JFK airport in New York (pictured, above).

Two agents with a terrorism task force who also were aboard claimed they became suspicious after Farag, a retired New York City police officer, and Elmasry, a General Electric sales manager, switched seats and spoke in Arabic, according to the AP. Elmasry caused more concern by repeatedly checking his watch and, in a conversation with one of the agents, revealing he was from Egypt, court papers said.

The agents had the pilot alert authorities at JFK that they suspected two Arab passengers were conducting surveillance. As they left the plane, the men were greeted by a team of police officers, handcuffed and thrown in jail cells before being released hours later.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on November 26, 2008 (boomark / email).