Portland man takes no-fly list dispute to the Supreme Court

By Ezra Kaplan

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — A Portland Oregon man’s long ongoing dispute over his placement on the no-fly list made it to the Supreme Court on Monday.

In the FBI v. Fikre case before the Supreme Court on Monday, one man who previously placed on the no-fly list argues he can still maintain his lawsuit even after being taken off the list.

While on a business trip in Sudan in 2010, Portland, Oregon resident Yonas Fikre found out he was on the no fly list – which is a list of people who the government who has deemed too much of a risk to national security to be allowed on commercial aircraft in the U.S.

He was then stuck overseas for four years and was even allegedly tortured and put in prison while on a trip in the United Arab Emirates. Fikre eventually flew to Sweden and tried to get asylum there but was denied. He was later flown back home on a private flight by the Swedish government.

He sued the FBI in 2013 alleging that they violated his constitutional rights by putting him on the no-fly list. But his case was dismissed after Fikre was taken off the list and the case was considered moot.

While the US Court of Appeals for the 9th circuit revived Fikre’s case, the FBI continued to say that they case was moot and promised not to put him on it again based on the currently available information… and that’s what their lawyer argued before the Supreme Court on Monday.

“The government has litigated many no-fly list claims to judgment. This case, however, is 11 years old and respondent has been off the list for the past eight of them. There simply isn’t a live case for controversy any longer, and this court should hold as much,” Assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General Sopan Joshi argued to the high court.

But Fikre argues his right to due process was violated and now is pushing back to see if the high court will allow his case to go forward because he doesn’t know for sure if he will ever be put back on the no-fly list.

“He doesn’t know what might cause him to be relisted. He doesn’t know if the next time he worships at a mosque or travels abroad, he might be reelected, massively disrupting his life once again. Mr. Fikre is peaceful., a law-abiding U.S. citizen. He has a lot of controversy against the government and seeks only to litigate that case on the merits,” argued Fikre’s attorney Gadeir Abbas.

During the arguments, some of the justices seemed largely skeptical of the government’s position says Reilly Stephens, Counsel at Liberty Justice Center whose organization filed an amicus brief in support of Fikre.

“I would say that went very well for Mr. Fikre. I think you saw that more or less all the justices were deeply concerned about how this works and about the fact that he has no explanation for why he was put on the list or why he was taken off. Even justices such as Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Alito, who you would think of as generally more hawkish on national security matters, were quite sympathetic,” said Stephens.

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