A federal appeals court today reinstated a lawsuit challenging the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslim groups in New Jersey after the September 11 terrorist attacks, saying any resulting harm came from the city's tactics, not the media's reporting of them.
The 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals, reversing a judge's decision last year to dismiss the case, found the Muslim plaintiffs raised sufficient allegations of religious-freedom and equal-protection violations.
The court compared the spying to other instances of heightened scrutiny of religious and ethnic groups, including Japanese-Americans during World War II.
In dismissing the lawsuit, US District Judge William Martini had concluded the police could not keep watch "on Muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the Muslim community itself" and concurred with the city in blaming reporting by The Associated Press, which exposed the surveillance program, for any harm.
The appeals court said the attempt to blame the AP was akin to saying, "What you don't know can't hurt you. And, if you do know, don't shoot us. Shoot the messenger."
The lawsuit revived today was among legal actions that followed reports by the AP that revealed how city police infiltrated Muslim student groups, put informants in mosques and otherwise spied on Muslims as part of a broad effort to prevent terrorist attacks. The reporting was honored with a Pulitzer Prize.
