American Civil Liberties Union

(formerly American Sociological Association et al. v Chertoff

Professor Adam Habib

Professor Adam Habib is one of South Africa’s leading scholars and political commentators. After his visa to travel to the U.S. was revoked without explanation in October 2006, Professor Habib applied for a new visa that would allow him to travel to the U.S. to attend speaking engagements. The State Department refused Habib a visa after months of inaction based on unsubstantiated and vague national security claims. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in a Massachusetts federal court, American Sociological Association v. Chertoff (now American Sociological Association v. Clinton), in September 2007 on behalf of U.S. organizations that have invited Professor Habib to speak in the U.S., including the American Sociological Association, the American Association of University Professors, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and the Boston Coalition for Palestinian Rights. The lawsuit charges that the government’s exclusion of Professor Habib without any legitimate basis violates the First Amendment rights of U.S. organizations to hear his ideas and engage him in face-to-face debate. In December 2008, the court ruled that it has the power to review whether the Bush administration has a valid reason for denying a visa to Professor Habib, and has since requested supplemental briefing from the parties regarding how the case should proceed. To this day, Habib remains banned from the country and unable to attend speaking engagements in the United States.

MORE
> "Banned: Why a South African is Going to Court in the U.S." — Adam Habib in The Huffington Post
> Fighting Censorship at the Border
> Keep Out: The New Yorker on Ideological Exclusion