SCOTUS SCRUTINY

Supreme Court Will Hear FBI Mosque Surveillance Case

The government has thus far been successful at stymieing the lawsuit, citing the state secrets privilege.

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it will take up FBI v. Fazaga during its next term, a case initially brought in 2011 by a trio of Muslim men who accused the FBI of targeting them and others based solely on their religion. It stems from a 2006 FBI operation involving an undercover agent who infiltrated a mosque in Orange County, California. The ACLU represented the plaintiff, Sheikh Yassir Fazaga, in the expansive class action suit, which demanded that the bureau destroy any information it collected illegally and pay damages to the people affected. But a district court dismissed the case, ruling in favor of the government, which successfully blocked the suit from moving to trial by citing the state secrets privilege. This allows the feds to shield from disclosure in court anything it believes could harm national security. What exactly defines a “state secret” has never been standardized by the courts.

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Justin RohrlichReporter

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