Lawyers for six Muslim prayer leaders removed from a US Airways jet at Twin Cities International Airport in 2006 told a federal magistrate Monday that they want the airline to divulge 10 years’ worth of discrimination complaints so they could compare the airline’s behavior before and after the September 2001 terrorist attacks.
Attorneys representing the airline argued they should have to turn over just three years’ worth of such data. The reason, said one: 9/11 changed everything.
“The bottom line is we’re in a post-9/11 world,” US Airways attorney Dane Jaques told U.S. Magistrate Arthur Boylan. “Procedures changed. The world changed. So much changed after 9/11.”
But Omar Mohammedi, a lawyer representing the six imams, argued that the information was crucial to the plaintiffs’ claim that they were victims of racial profiling, discriminated against because they were Muslims of Middle Eastern descent.
“We know with 9/11 came discrimination,” he told the judge. “We want to see what the situation was before 9/11, compared to after 9/11.”
Boylan took the matter and several other issues under advisement. There is no timetable for when he’ll rule on those issues.
It is uncertain how many other discrimination investigations of US Airways there have been, if any. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings is investigating discrimination complaints stemming from the incident with the imams.
The imams are suing the airline. Monday’s hearing involved dueling motions to compel the other side to release information during the part of the lawsuit known as “discovery.” In it, each side is entitled to request documents and ask questions of the other side.
While most documents have been produced and most questions answered, a few sticking points prompted the hearing. For their part, lawyers for US Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission claim the imams have not been forthcoming in describing what harm they suffered when they were kicked off the plane.
The lawsuit stems from an incident at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in November 2006. Six Muslim clerics — five from Arizona and one from California — boarded US Airways Flight 300 to return home after attending a conference in Minneapolis.
But after they went through security and boarded the plane, a passenger passed a note to a flight attendant, claiming the men had been making “anti-U.S.” statements, had prayed in Arabic and were seated throughout the aircraft.
Based on the note and a flight attendant’s claim that one of the men had asked for a seatbelt extender and didn’t appear to need it, while another had gotten up to talk to his traveling companions, the pilot ordered the men removed from the airplane.
Airport police removed the men, handcuffed them and then took them back aboard the plane so they could identify and remove their luggage. The FBI and U.S. Secret Service questioned the men, determined they posed no threat and let them go.
When they tried to rebook their flight on US Airways, the airline refused. After they got seats on a Northwest Airlines flight, US Airways executives offered to pay for the imams’ flight and any hotel expenses, and also apologized to them.
Among the materials the plaintiffs are seeking — and US Airways has refused to turn over — are materials dealing with training and security measures. But the airline claims such material is privileged and says it can’t turn it over until it gets approval from the federal Transportation Security Administration.
Boylan wondered aloud what would happen if he ordered the airline to turn the material over, even for a private review in the judge’s chambers, and whether it would set up a battle between the executive and judicial branches of government.
“Honestly, I don’t know if we can share that with you,” Jaques said.