The Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously allowed a man's lawsuit against the FBI to proceed over his inclusion on the No Fly List, ruling that the government has failed to demonstrate that the case is moot, The Hill reported.
Yonas Fikre, a U.S. citizen and a former resident of Sudan, filed a lawsuit against the FBI, claiming that his inclusion on the No Fly List is unlawful. The government eventually removed him from the list and iterated that he was unlikely to be added back to it, and therefore argued that his lawsuit was void.
However, the court rejected that argument in an opinion authored by Justice Neil Gorsuch.
"Just because the government has not yet demonstrated that Mr. Fikre's case is moot does not mean it will never be able to do so," Gorsuch wrote. "This case comes to us in a preliminary posture, framed only by uncontested factual allegations and a terse declaration. As the case unfolds, the complaint's allegations will be tested rather than taken as true, and different facts may emerge that may call for a different conclusion."
Fikre claims that he was questioned by the FBI while traveling to Sudan in 2009 in an attempt to start an electronics business in East Africa. He also claims that the FBI told him that he was on the No Fly List and could be removed if he acted as an informant.
Fikre says he refused the offer and instead traveled to the United Arab Emirates, where he claims he was kidnapped and tortured by the secret police in the country on behalf of the FBI. He later moved to Sweden, where he sought asylum and filed his lawsuit against the FBI.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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