Appeals court revives Muslim family’s case over airport searches Calling it 'heartless,' a three-judge panel blasted the government’s suggestion that the Jibril family book another flight and face additional invasive searches to find out if they are on the terror watch list.

(Courthouse News) The D.C. Circuit gave a Muslim family a second chance Tuesday in their lawsuit claiming they were wrongly placed on the federal terrorist watch list and subjected to unconstitutional searches on a religious trip.

Mohammed Jibril, a U.S. citizen of Jordanian national origin, his wife Aida and five children were ready to take a flight as part of … their regular, religious-based trips to Jordan back in 2018. But when they got to the airport they experienced something new: after an hour-long wait, their boarding passes were marked with “SSSS.”

This acronym, they would later learn, stands for Secondary Screening Security Selection and acts as a signal for Transportation Security Administration agents to further search the passengers and their baggage. Mohammed was separated from his wife and children, one as young as 2, and each was searched without their consent or a warrant, according to a lawsuit they filed in Washington federal court two years ago.

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