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In First, Government Officially Tells ACLU Clients Their No Fly List Status
Seven Plaintiffs in ACLU Lawsuit Told That They Can Board Flights, Others Will Be Able to Challenge Inclusion on No Fly List
PORTLAND, Oregon
Following a court order, the government today notified seven people who were on the No Fly List that they are cleared to fly.
The six men and one woman are part of an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit filed in 2010 on behalf of 13 Americans challenging their inclusion on the No Fly List.
A federal judge recently set deadlines ordering the government to notify all of the plaintiffs of their No Fly List status, give reasons to those still on the list, and provide an opportunity for them to challenge those reasons. The first of those deadlines is today, and the government must complete all of the notifications by January 16.
The government has long maintained that it could not tell anyone whether or not they were on the No Fly List or provide reasons for inclusion, claiming that doing so would expose national security secrets, but the court rejected that argument.
"This is a victory for transparency and fairness over untenable government secrecy and stonewalling," said Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union National Security Project. "After years of being blacklisted and denied due process, seven of our clients know they can fly again, and the rest will soon be able to fight back against their unjust flying ban."
Today's letter from the government informed the seven plaintiffs that they "are not currently on the No Fly List." One of the plaintiffs notified was Abe Mashal, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and dog trainer who suffered professionally and personally when he could not travel far from his home in Illinois.
"More than four years ago, I was denied boarding at an airport, surrounded by TSA agents, and questioned by the FBI," said Mashal. "That day, many freedoms that I took for granted were robbed from me. I was never told why this happened, whether I was officially on the list, or what I could do to get my freedoms back. Now, I can resume working for clients who are beyond driving distance. I can attend weddings, graduations, and funerals that were too far away to reach by car or train. I can travel with my family to Hawaii, Jamaica, or anywhere else on vacation. Today, I learned I have my freedoms back."
In June, U.S. District Court Judge Anna Brown struck down as unconstitutional the government's system for people to challenge their inclusion on the No Fly List, calling the procedures "wholly ineffective" and a violation of the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process. The judge ordered the government to provide meaningful redress, and in August the government publicly committed to reforming the entire redress system.
"The opportunity that the plaintiffs in our case are finally getting to clear their names should be available to everyone on the No Fly List as soon as possible," said Shamsi.
According to leaked documents published by The Intercept, there were more than 47,000 people on the No Fly List as of August 2013, including 800 Americans. Their only recourse is to file a request with the Department of Homeland Security's Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP). However, DHS only responds with a letter that merely confirms the request was received and reviewed. The letter does not confirm or deny whether their names are on the No Fly List, explain why they were denied boarding, or indicate whether they can fly.
The documents also showed that in August 2013, there were 680,000 people on the government's master terrorism watch list; even according to the government's own records, 280,000 of them have no affiliation with a recognized terrorist group.
The ACLU has criticized the government's broader terrorism watchlisting system, which includes the No Fly List, as overbroad and an ineffective waste of resources that uses racial and religious profiling instead of hard evidence of actual wrongdoing.
Today's government filing is at:
https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/no_fly_letter.pdf
More information on the case is at:
https://www.aclu.org/national-security/latif-et-al-v-holder-et-al-aclu-challenge-government-no-fly-list
The American Civil Liberties Union was founded in 1920 and is our nation's guardian of liberty. The ACLU works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
(212) 549-2666LATEST NEWS
Sanders Calls Trump Anti-Science Agenda an 'Attack Against Anyone Who Has Ever Loved Someone With Cancer'
A Senate HELP Committee report found that there has been a $2.7 billion drop in National Institutes of Health research funding commitments in the first three months of 2025 compared to last year.
May 13, 2025
U.S. President Donald Trump is conducting an "unprecedented and illegal" broadside against science and scientists that will have devastating consequences for regular Americans, according to a report released Tuesday by Sen. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont.
The report, which casts Trump's actions as a "war on science" that will lead to "preventable suffering" and "needless loss of life," was compiled by the minority staff with the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, where Sanders is the ranking member.
To compile the report, staff interviewed federal health workers, analyzed National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant funding data, reviewed self-reported data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and more.
The report concludes that Trump's moves against science will yield fewer breakthroughs for combating diseases, a less robust public health response to future infectious disease threats, and even less trust in public institutions.
In a statement on Tuesday, Sanders said that "Trump's war on science is an attack against anyone who has ever loved someone with cancer."
All told, according to the report, as of April 2025 the Trump administration has terminated at least $13.5 billion in health funding and has dismissed thousands of employees who support America's scientific infrastructure.
In what the report calls the "clearest sign" of the administration's effort to defund science, it states that NIH committed $2.7 billion less to research in the first three months of 2025 compared to the same time period last year, representing an effective 35% cut.
When the researchers behind the report conducted an analysis of National Cancer Institute grants, they found there has been a 31% decline in cancer research grant funding in the first three months of 2025, compared to the first three months of 2024.
The report also relays accounts from federal workers who highlight the Trump administration's efforts to impose control over "scientific speech."
For example, one HHS official said: "We get requests from the media to provide scientific expertise. Normally, [political appointees] would never get involved in this type of non-high-profile stuff but now they have to approve every single media request."
Also, "researchers across the federal science agencies report that certain scientific topics now trigger heightened scrutiny or political review before publication, presentation, or grant consideration," according to the report. The researchers also state that over 100 scientific meetings have been delayed or canceled.
The report also focuses on the impact of firings at HHS. The report states that at least 10,000 workers at HHS agencies have been terminated, on top of some 10,000 who have left voluntarily of been forced out by the Trump administration, citing public reports. This tally aligns with a tracker of federal personnel cuts maintained by The New York Times.
According to the report, federal employees believe that the loss of "public capacity" could mean more power for the private sector. One HHS official quoted in the report anonymously said: "I chose to go into federal service because I care about people. I want to be able to answer to the taxpayer, not the shareholder."
Speaking of overall cuts to HHS, "the agency in charge of the health and well-being of all Americans including tens of millions of seniors, children, and working families may be cut down to... less than one-sixth the size of UnitedHealth Group," according to the report.
The report states that these firings have lead to "chaos" across HHS, and that disruptions have been particularly acute at NIH.
"Initially, we had whole labs full of people that were fired. Complete chaos. Nobody had any idea if their tests were being run," said an anonymously quoted staffer at the NIH Clinical Center—the country's biggest hospital devoted solely to clinical research.
"Trump's war on science is not making America healthy again," Sanders said. "It is making Americans and people throughout the world sicker."
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'Catastrophic': GOP Pushes Largest-Ever Cuts to Food Aid to Fund Tax Breaks for the Rich
"House Republicans' proposals would gut this program, and take food away from the hungry to give tax breaks to the ultrawealthy. These budget proposals make it clear where their priorities lie."
May 13, 2025
House Republicans are set to hold a committee hearing Tuesday on legislation that would inflict the largest-ever cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program—a highly effective anti-poverty program that tens of millions of people across the U.S. rely on to afford groceries—to help offset the cost of further slashing taxes for the rich.
The proposal, which is part of the GOP's sprawling reconciliation package, would shift some SNAP costs onto states and expand the program's work requirements, adding procedural hurdles that advocates say will make it harder for families in need to obtain benefits.
One recent analysis estimated that imposing harsher work requirements on SNAP enrollees would cause millions to lose benefits at a time of elevated food costs and rising hunger.
The new bill would also freeze updates to the Thrifty Food Plan, which is used to determine SNAP benefit amounts. Freezing the plan would effectively cut SNAP benefits for all recipients, analysts said.
"Bottom line: This bill would worsen hunger and hardship," said Ty Jones Cox, vice president for food assistance at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. "If enacted, it would be the largest cut to SNAP in history—taking food from struggling families to give tax cuts to the wealthy. Our leaders can and must do better."
The House Ag bill released tonight would take away or cut #SNAP food benefits for millions of low-income people struggling to afford groceries—families w/ children, seniors, ppl w/ disabilities, veterans & workers in low-wage jobs.
— Ty Jones Cox (@tyjonescox.bsky.social) May 12, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Overall, the Republican legislation aims to slash federal SNAP spending by $230 billion over the next decade. Lawmakers on the House Agriculture Committee are set to mark up the bill at a hearing on Tuesday at 7:30 pm ET.
"SNAP is an efficient anti-hunger program," said Kyle Ross, a policy analyst at the Center for American Progress. "Yet, House Republicans' proposals would gut this program, and take food away from the hungry to give tax breaks to the ultrawealthy. These budget proposals make it clear where their priorities lie."
Republicans unveiled their plan for deep SNAP cuts shortly after releasing draft legislation that confirmed their push for another round of tax giveaways for the richest Americans.
Rep. Angie Craig (D-Minn.), the ranking member of the House Agriculture Committee, said Monday that "Republicans are fast-tracking catastrophic cuts to food assistance, taking food away from seniors living on fixed incomes and parents who are struggling to afford groceries for their children."
"This smash-and-grab job busts up the farm bill coalition and abandons the traditionally bipartisan legislation that American agriculture relies on to remain competitive and that family farmers need to get through these tough economic times," said Craig. "We should make food assistance work better for those it was designed to protect—like children and moms—not cut it so Republicans can fund more tax breaks for those at the very top."
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'We Need Calls Now!' Republicans Slip Nonprofit Killer Bill Into Tax Package
"If Democrats capitulate to the wanton destruction of crucial civil society institutions, they had better expect civil society to burn them to the ground for that betrayal."
May 13, 2025
House Republicans on Monday quietly revived a proposal that would grant the Trump administration broad authority to crush nonprofits it views as part of the political opposition, from environmental justice organizations to news outlets.
Fight for the Future and other advocacy groups called attention to the measure, which was buried in the final pages of the House Ways and Means Committee's draft reconciliation bill, starting on page 380.
A markup hearing for the legislation is scheduled to take place on Tuesday at 2:30 pm ET.
The proposal would empower the U.S. Treasury Department to revoke the tax-exempt status of nonprofits deemed material supporters of terrorism, with only a hollow simulacrum of due process for the accused organizations. It is already illegal for nonprofits to provide material support for terrorism.
"The House is about to hand the Trump administration the ability to strip nonprofits of their 501(c)3 status without any reason or recourse. This is a five-alarm fire for nonprofits nationwide," said Lia Holland, campaigns and communications director at Fight for the Future. "If the text of last autumn's H.R. 9495 is passed in the budget, any organization with goals that do not line up with MAGA can be destroyed with a wink from Trump to the Treasury."
The measure passed the Republican-controlled House late last year with the support of more than a dozen Democrats, but it never received a vote in the Senate.
"This terribly thought-out legislation means that under the current administration, every environmental, racial justice, LGBTQ+, gender justice, immigration justice, and—particularly—any anti-genocide organization throughout the country may be on the chopping block," said Holland. "If Democrats capitulate to the wanton destruction of crucial civil society institutions, they had better expect civil society to burn them to the ground for that betrayal."
WE NEED CALLS NOW! HR 9495, now known as Section 112209, if passed, would give the Trump administration unprecedented power in suppressing nonprofits, by allowing the administration the power to strip organizations of their tax exempt status! Call 319-313-7674
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— Fight for the Future (@fightforthefuture.org) May 12, 2025 at 7:53 PM
The GOP's renewed push for what opponents have called the "nonprofit killer bill" comes as the Trump administration wages war on nonprofit organizations, threatening to strip them of their tax-exempt status as part of a sweeping attack on the president's political opponents.
"In the months since inauguration, Trump and his Cabinet have found other means of cracking down on political speech—particularly speech in favor of Palestinians—by deporting student activists and revoking hundreds of student visas. He has already threatened to attempt to revoke the tax-exempt status of Harvard University, part of his larger quest to discipline and punish colleges," journalist Noah Hurowitz wrote for The Intercept late Monday.
"But the nonprofit clause of the tax bill would give the president wider power to go after organizations that stand in his way," Hurowitz added.
Robert McCaw, government affairs director at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Monday that "this provision is the latest in a growing wave of legislative attacks on constitutional rights."
"CAIR is urging every member of the Ways and Means Committee to VOTE NO on the inclusion of this provision and to support an expected amendment to strike the language," the group said in a statement. "Three Democratic members of the committee—Reps. Brad Schneider (Ill.), Tom Suozzi (N.Y.), and Jimmy Panetta (Calif.)—previously voted in favor of the Nonprofit Killer Bill on the House floor last year. They must reverse course and vote to oppose it in committee."
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