By Lawrence Hurley
(REUTERS.COM) The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear the FBI’s bid to block a civil rights lawsuit by three Muslim men from California who accused the agency of illegally conducting surveillance on them following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
The justices will take up the FBI’s appeal of a lower court’s 2019 ruling that let various claims made by the men move forward in the litigation. The Supreme Court will consider whether the bulk of the claims should be rejected based on the government’s so-called state secrets privilege, a legal doctrine sometimes asserted when national security interests are invoked. The court will hear the case during its next term, which starts in October. The 2011 lawsuit accused the FBI of infiltrating mainstream mosques in Southern California and targeting Muslim Americans for surveillance because of their religion.
It accused the agency of engaging in religious discrimination in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment by targeting Muslims, as well as violating the Fourth Amendment prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.
