Supreme Court sees legal challenge to feds’ no-fly list

A group of Americans represented by the Council on American-Islamic Relations asked the Supreme Court on Friday to review the legality of the government’s watchlist.

Adis Kovac, one of the plaintiffs, was interrogated when he tried to board a plane. The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed he was on the no-fly list, according to the filing.

Mr. Kovac and the other plaintiffs sued to be removed from the watchlist, alleging the compilation of the list runs afoul of federal law and that the agencies don’t have clear authorization from Congress.

The petition claims that the government can place citizens on the watchlist without probable cause for something like associating with someone already on the no-fly list or traveling to a majority Muslim country. The complaint says such action infringes on the freedom to associate.

“And watch list inclusion can affect everything from a person’s ability to travel on airplanes to how he is treated during traffic stops to whether he can exercise his Second Amendment right to purchase a firearm,” the filing read.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the feds’ watchlist, reasoning that Congress authorized it. That decision prompted the group’s appeal to the justices.

A spokesperson for the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the case, Kovac v. Wray.

It would take four justices to vote in favor of hearing the case for oral arguments to be granted.

Justin Sadowsky, senior litigation attorney with CAIR, said the 5th Circuit’s decision upholds “a vast, opaque and intrusive government program without ever identifying statutory language that clearly says the government can do this.

“If the government is going to run a sprawling multiagency program that destroys the lives of innocent Americans without a hearing or even evidence of any crime, the least our judiciary could demand is that Congress enact the program. But it hasn’t.”