PORTLAND, Ore.  — In a landmark ruling, a federal judge struck down as unconstitutional the government’s procedures for people on the No Fly List to challenge their inclusion. 

The decision came in an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit brought on behalf of 13 Americans who found themselves on the list without any notice, reasons, or meaningful way to get off it.

The judge ordered the government to create a new process that remedies these shortcomings, calling the current process “wholly ineffective” and a violation of the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee of due process.

 The ruling also granted a key request in the lawsuit, ordering the government to tell the ACLU’s clients why they are on the No Fly List and give them the opportunity to challenge their inclusion on the list before the judge.

“For years, in the name of national security the government has argued for blanket secrecy and judicial deference to its profoundly unfair No Fly List procedures, and those arguments have now been resoundingly rejected by the court,” said ACLU National Security Project Director Hina Shamsi, one of the attorneys who argued the case. “We hope this serves as a wake-up call for the government to fix its broken watchlist system, which has swept up so many innocent people.”

According to media reports, there are more than 20,000 people on the No Fly List. Their only recourse is to file a request with the Department of Homeland Security’s Traveler Redress Inquiry Program (DHS TRIP), after which DHS responds with a letter that does not explain why they were denied boarding.

The ruling from the U.S. District Court in Oregon found, “Without proper notice and an opportunity to be heard, an individual could be doomed to indefinite placement on the No-Fly List. … The absence of any meaningful procedures to afford Plaintiffs the opportunity to contest their placement on the No-Fly List violates Plaintiffs’ rights to procedural due process.”

The national ACLU, along with its affiliates in Oregon, Southern California, Northern California, and New Mexico, filed the lawsuit in June 2010 on behalf of 13 U.S. citizens, including four military veterans. In July 2012, the 9th Circuit Appeals Court reversed the district court’s dismissal of the case on jurisdictional grounds, allowing the district court to consider the case on its merits. In August 2013, the court found that constitutional rights are at stake when the government places Americans on the list.

The Arab Civil Rights League, based in Dearborn, has also been handling cases of local Muslims who were put on ‘no-fly lists.’ The ACRL issued a press release commending Judge Brown’s decision.

“Brown took great strides in protecting United States Citizens’ due process,”  the ACRL stated.  “In holding that the current No-Fly List and redress system violates procedural due process, Judge Brown focused on the basic principle of due process, which requires an opportunity to be heard in a meaningful manner, and the lack meaningful redress available with the current operation of the No-Fly List.”