The United States Supreme Court has ruled in favor of the FBI in a case concerning discrimination claims by three Muslim men from California who accused the agency of conducting illegal surveillance of them after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The court on Friday unanimously overturned a lower court’s 2019 ruling that said a federal law regulating government surveillance called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) trumped the state secrets privilege – a legal defense based on national security interests – that the government asserted.
The ruling means the case returns to lower courts for further litigation, with the claims made by the plaintiffs not yet dismissed.
The Supreme Court faulted the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals’ analysis, with Justice Samuel Alito writing that the FISA provision in question “does not displace the state secrets privilege”.
The lawsuit accused the FBI of infiltrating mainstream mosques in southern California and targeting Muslim Americans for surveillance because of their religion.
It accused the FBI of engaging in religious discrimination in violation of the US Constitution’s First Amendment by targeting Muslims, as well as violating the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.
The mosque’s imam and two worshipers sued the FBI, alleging violations of religious freedom and discrimination.
