People On No-Fly List Can Sue In District Court

I Don't Believe in Imaginary Property writes "According to a new ruling, those put on the No-Fly List can challenge their inclusion in federal court. Previously, they had to go directly to an appellate court, which would deprive them of any chance to subpoena documents or witnesses and make gathering evidence difficult or impossible. Knowing the government, they will get around this by creating a 'No-Sue' list and making it even harder to change your name."

Tried to RTFA...

[meringuoid]

... but broken link. It looks like some helpful filter somewhere replaced a double hyphen with a dash. Article here [wired.com].

CNN link to someone doing it.

[BitterOldGUy]

Airline pilot sues [cnn.com]

Re:Time To Push Back on the Bastards!

[stephanruby]

Finally, the US Courts are getting wise to the abuses we Americans have been subjected to in the name of battling terrorism.

Hopefully, this will come in time for this commercial pilot, he has 15 days to get off the no-fly-list -- or he's going to lose his job [wired.com].

Re:Time To Push Back on the Bastards!

[stephanruby]

And may be for this other guy, this guy is a different case -- he's a commercial pilot and he has even been authorized by the TSA to carry a weapon on board -- but his name happens to be the same as someone else who happens to be on the list [cnn.com]. James Robinson, it does suck to be you. I just checked my white pages, and there seems to be only six of you listed. Hey, I wonder how many James Robinson we have that are reading Slashdot at this very moment? Speak up, don't be shy.

Re:Of course.

[morgan_greywolf]

Gotta love the government being immune to anybody on American soil suing them.

But the government is not immune to being sued. Suing the government is a Constitutional right and a favorite American pastime! Furthermore, any creation of 'No Sue' list as mentioned would be a violation of your Constitutional right to petition the government for a redress of issues.

Re:Of course.

[Anonymous Coward]

The U.S. Government has a blanket 'no sue' policy in place stating that the Government cannot be sued without the permission of the Government (that's a nifty netup, no?). Certain topics such as contract dusputes have been approved for suits against the Government but in general a U. S. Citizen can't sue the Government.

Re:dance off

[m.ducharme]

Oh no, normal Belairs aren't a one-shot thing (though maybe they should be) it's only the reverse belair that is a one-shot.

Re:What use is it?

[werfele]

Has this wonderful "no fly list" ever had a successful outcome in preventing a real suspect from boarding a plane

Well, they definitely thwarted Cat Steven's [go.com] nefarious plans, whatever they might have been.

Re:Of course.

[wronskyMan]

The concept of sovereign immunity is common in other governments as well - the original rationale for having it in a democratic society was to force change in government policy through the will of the majority rather than the suit of 1 person/decision of a judge. Later as the bugs in the judicial system were worked out lawsuits were seen as an available check and balance and were therefore introduced to allow the minority to offset the majority if necessary (small-R republican vs. purely democratic).

Military Privilege: Keeping their Rights

[Doc Ruby]

So having a common name isn't a problem so long as you've got some special privileges attached to your ID.

I'm glad your father is treated with respect. And that his exception proves the rule that this kind of police state requires you have some lateral connection to the police just to operate as a normal person with your normal rights.