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Today, the Supreme Court sided with our Muslim clients, finding that they can pursue their demands for damages from FBI agents who harassed them and tried to coerce them to become informants, in violation of their religious freedom @theccr @CUNY_CLEAR https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-71_qol1.pdf
FBI Agents placed our clients on the No-Fly List in retaliation for their refusal to become informants against their community. Listen to Mr. Tanvir describe what happened to him. He persevered. He insisted on accountability. Today, he won.
Being forced to spy on your faith community violates religious freedom. Unfortunately, FBI agents actively recruit & coerce Muslims to become informants all the time. Listen to our other client, Naveed, break down why he refused, at great cost to him https://ccrjustice.org/naveed-shinwari
Oops, here's the actual video. I'm not great at Twitter. But I will keep tweeting about this case because, well, it's been almost 10 years since Tanvir first walked into my office and we have a lot to say.
SCOTUS & Religious Liberties Twitter, do your thing - lots to be said about a unanimous SCOTUS decision in a case, esp. involving Muslim religious rights. But let's linger on the facts, for a min: FBI agents do this all the time. With impunity. It's so common. It's outrageous...
And it's not like people haven't spoken out. FBI agents wanted Yassine Ouassif to regularly report what his friends were saying at the mosque he attended in Sacramento. When he refused, the agents threatened to take away his green card and deport him https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-aug-07-me-informant7-story.html
This is what happens when you hand FBI agents access to coercive tools like the No-Fly List, which they can wield virtually unchecked against vulnerable ppl- and combine it with a mandate that they cultivate informants ("Confidential Human Sources") in targeted communities
FBI informant coercion is of course not limited to the Muslim context laid out in our clients' stories. It's the oldest play in the book. Black activists have a lot to say on this, including a rich history of resisting & objecting to harassing informant recruitment practices.
Loved reading about Bibi Angola, a lawyer and friend of black liberation activist Assata Shakur, she sued after FBI agents, thru aggressive intimidation and harassment, tried to force her into providing info about Ms. Shakur. The Second Circuit, in 1981:
