Responding to ACLU Lawsuit, Government Backs Away from Claim that Swiss Muslim Scholar Endorsed Terrorism
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Writers, Actors to Honor Political Thinkers
Barred from United States
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NEW YORK - In response
to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil
Liberties Union on behalf of academic organizations, the Departments of State
and Homeland Security have backed away from a claim that noted Swiss Muslim
scholar Tariq Ramadan is being denied entry to the United States because he
endorsed or espoused terrorism.
"As this case has progressed, it has become
increasingly obvious that the government has no legitimate basis for barring
Professor Ramadan from the United States," said Jameel Jaffer, the lead ACLU
attorney in this case. "All the evidence suggests that the government is barring
Professor Ramadan simply because it doesn't want Americans to hear what he has
to say."
In July 2004, the Departments of State and Homeland Security
revoked a visa that would have allowed Ramadan to accept a tenured teaching
position at the University of Notre Dame, explaining their action by pointing to
a provision of the Patriot Act that allows the government to bar those who have
"endorsed or espoused terrorism."
In court, however, the government failed to
introduce evidence that Ramadan had endorsed terrorism, and in papers filed
yesterday it acknowledged that, despite its July 2004 statement to the media, it
had never determined that Ramadan was inadmissible to the United States under
that provision of the Patriot Act.
In a brief filed with a federal court late
last night, United States Attorneys said: "the Government has disavowed any
present intention to rely on the 'endorse or espouse' provision" of the Patriot
Act. They also wrote: "The State Department has been able to state at this time
it has not determined, and does not intend to determine, that Mr. Ramadan is
ineligible for a visa based on the provision."
Although the State Department
has backed away from using the Patriot Act provision, the government is still
keeping Ramadan's visa application in limbo. In their brief, government
attorneys argue that the court cannot impose a deadline or otherwise compel
officials to respond to a new visa application submitted by Ramadan on September
16, 2005. The ACLU will file a response to these arguments this Thursday.
In
their lawsuit, the ACLU and its clients -- the American Academy of Religion, the
American Association of University Professors and PEN American Center -- say
that the government's refusal to allow Ramadan into the country is violating
their right to hear constitutionally protected speech. The U.S. Supreme Court
has previously said that the "right to receive information and ideas . . . is
fundamental to a free society," and it has recognized that the exclusion of
foreign scholars implicates the First Amendment rights of United States citizens
and residents.
The ACLU said it will press the court to order the government
to act on Ramadan's pending visa application, which has now been "under
consideration" for seven months. It will also ask the court to bind the
government to its commitment not to invoke the ideological exclusion provision
against Ramadan in the future.
"The government's argument that it can
exclude foreign scholars simply because of their political views has serious
implications for the First Amendment rights of United States citizens and
residents," said Arthur Eisenberg, NYCLU Legal Director. "Ideological exclusion
impoverishes academic and political debate inside the United States."
To
highlight the problem of "ideological exclusion," the ACLU and PEN are hosting
an event on Thursday featuring readings from writers and scholars who were
banned from the United States because of their political opinions. Readers at
the event include Todd Solondz, Liev Schreiber, Debra Winger, Martin Amis,
Russell Banks, Gioconda Belli, Naomi Shihab Nye, Barbara Goldsmith and Eloy
Urroz. The event, called "An Evening Without. . . ," is part of the PEN World
Voices Festival of International Literature and will take place at The Bowery
Poetry Club, 308 Bowery, New York, at 10:00 p.m.
"The case of Tariq Ramadan
marks a return to discredited Cold War policies that allowed the U.S. government
to exclude prominent artists and intellectuals like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and
Pablo Neruda, who never posed any national security threat," said ACLU attorney
Melissa Goodman. "We know now that the government was more concerned with
silencing those whose politics it disfavored than protecting national
security."
The case is before Judge Paul A. Crotty of the Southern District
of New York. In addition to Jaffer, Goodman and Eisenberg, attorneys in the case
are Judy Rabinovitz and Lucas Guttentag of the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project,
and New York immigration lawyer Claudia Slovinsky.
For more information on
"An Evening Without..." go to www.aclu.org/safefree/general/25038res20060413.html
For
legal documents in the case of AAR v. Chertoff, go to www.aclu.org/exclusion