The San Bernadino Sun reports
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Pomona College student who alleged he was mistreated at a Philadelphia airport.
According to the lawsuit, the Transportation Security Administration, Philadelphia police and the FBI violated Nicholas George's Fourth Amendment rights to be free from unreasonable seizure as well as his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.
A TSA spokeswoman told a Philadelphia newspaper that George, 22, was causing a disturbance while he was being screened at the airport.
"I don't think it's just a couple of dumb agents that screwed the pooch on this one - it's a bigger problem," said George, a physics and Middle Eastern studies senior at the Claremont college.
George was detained for several hours in August after he tried to pass through a screening checkpoint at Philadelphia International Airport with Arabic-English language flash cards as well as a book critical of American foreign policy, according to the lawsuit.
TSA officials detained George for 30 minutes and "abusively interrogated" him for another 15 minutes, according to the lawsuit that was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the eastern district of Pennsylvania.
George was later taken to an airport police station and jailed for about four hours. He was handcuffed for two hours.
Leave a comment