The US Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Tuesday that a challenge to prior placement on the No Fly List by Yonas Fikre can proceed. The government’s assessment that the lawsuit was void following Fikre’s removal from the list was rejected by the court. The government, according to the ruling, did not adequately prove that the case was moot, raising the possibility that the plaintiff could be added to the list again in the future.
As per the criteria of the ‘voluntary cessation’ doctrine, the court pointed out that a case might be classified as moot if the defendant convincingly showed that the contested practice couldn’t ‘reasonably be expected to recur.’ Justice Neil Gorsuch, author of the majority opinion, stated that the government failed to convincingly show that there is no reasonable expectation of a repeat of past contested actions.
Yonas Fikre, a US citizen residing in Sudan, lodged a lawsuit against the FBI in 2013 following his addition to the No Fly List. He argued that his inclusion on the list violated his right to due process and was discriminatory based on race, national origin, and religion. Fikre alleged that the FBI added him to the list after he declined their request to become a government informant. After his return to Oregon in 2015, he was removed from the list a year later, an act the government claimed had rendered the lawsuit moot.
The recent Supreme Court ruling ensures that Fikre’s legal challenge can proceed, although Justice Gorsuch emphasized that the government might still be able to demonstrate that Fikre’s inclusion on the list did not infringe upon his constitutional rights. Nonetheless, this decision is viewed as a significant step forward for critics of the No Fly List, often condemned for its perceived indiscriminate approach to inclusion. These individuals now have an avenue to challenge their listing, offering a glimmer of hope in what has often been a convoluted, clandestine process.
For more comprehensive coverage of the story, refer to the detailed report available here.