Judge: U.S. erred in putting Stanford grad student on 'no-fly' list

Rahinah Ibrahim Rahinah Ibrahim Photo: -, McManis Faulkner Law Photo: -, McManis Faulkner Law Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Judge: U.S. erred in putting Stanford grad student on 'no-fly' list 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

(01-14) 16:23 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- In the first-ever trial involving a challenge to the government's secretive "no-fly" list, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that U.S. officials had mistakenly classified a former Stanford graduate student as a terrorist in 2005 and must allow her to apply for re-entry to the United States.

"The government concedes that (Rahinah Ibrahim) is not a threat to our national security," U.S. District Judge William Alsup said in a public summary of a ruling he issued under seal because of the Justice Department's reliance on classified information. He said he would prefer to make the ruling public but would leave it sealed until April 15 so that an appeals court can consider the government's request to maintain secrecy.

Alsup stopped short of ordering U.S consular officials to issue Ibrahim a visa that would allow her to return to the United States from her native Malaysia, saying such decisions were "discretionary" and not subject to judicial review.

But Ibrahim's lawyer, Elizabeth Pipkin, said that "justice has finally been done for our client, an innocent woman who was wrongly ensnared in the government's flawed watch-listing system."

Ibrahim is now a 48-year-old university professor in Malaysia. While completing her graduate studies at Stanford, she was arrested at San Francisco International Airport in January 2005 when she went to a ticket counter with her 14-year-old daughter for an overseas flight.

She was released after two hours and told by police that the federal government had removed her from its watch list and cleared her to fly. But when she tried to return from Malaysia two months later, she was told that her visa had been revoked under a terrorism law.

Ibrahim settled claims against San Francisco police and others involved in her arrest for $225,000, but sued the federal government to clear her from the watch list and allow her to return. Justice Department lawyers unsuccessfully sought to dismiss the suit on secrecy grounds, and much of the nonjury trial was held behind closed doors.

In his summary of Tuesday's ruling, Alsup said the evidence showed that Ibrahim's inclusion on a terrorist list "resulted from an error by the government" that must be corrected. He said the government must also tell Ibrahim whether she is currently on the no-fly list and, at least in general terms, inform her why her previous visa request was denied.