USA Today; December 2, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An eight-year legal odyssey by a Malaysian university professor to clear her name from the U.S. government's no-fly list went to trial Monday in federal court in San Francisco.
Rahinah Ibrahim claims she was mistakenly placed on the list because of her national origin and Muslim faith. She has fought in court since her arrest at San Francisco International Airport in January 2005 to clear her name.
Several similar lawsuits are pending across the nation, but Ibrahim's legal challenge appears to be the first to go to trial.
Unlike a typical U.S. trial, where details important and mundane are disclosed in the name of justice, Ibrahim's legal challenge has run head-on into the U.S. government's state secret privilege that allows it to decline to disclose vital evidence if prosecutors can show a threat to national security.
Ibrahim's lawyer is barred by court orders and national security provisions from delving too deeply into the inner-workings of the government administration of its suspected lists of terrorists.
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