Please join the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in Brooklyn, New York on Friday, March 11, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. to hear oral arguments in Turkmen v. Ashcroft, CCR’s class action civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Muslim, South Asian and Arab non-citizens swept up by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and FBI in a religious profiling dragnet following 9/11. CCR Staff Attorney Rachel Meeropol will oppose the Defendants’ Motions to Dismiss Plaintiffs’ Fourth Amended Complaint in Turkmen v. Ashcroft.

What:  Turkmen v. Ashcroft oral arguments
When: Friday, March 11, 2011 at 10:00 a.m. (arrive 9:30-9:45 a.m. for security and seating)
Where: United States District Court, Eastern District of New York, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Courtroom 6 C South, Brooklyn, New York 11201

 

Turkmen was first brought against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, former INS Commissioner James Ziglar and employees of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York in 2002. Although the five original plaintiffs have settled their claims with the U.S., the lawsuit continues to seek money damages against those government officials for their creation of a policy of religious and racial profiling and harsh treatment of hundreds of non-citizens detained after 9/11.  The men were detained for months in super maximum security conditions because of their religion and ethnicity.  During this time, they were abused, held without charges, and treated as terrorists without any evidence to connect them to terrorism.