The Transportation Security Administration and JetBlue Airways have been sued in federal court for illegally discriminating against an American resident based solely on the Arabic message on his T-shirt and his ethnicity. Last year, the Iraqi-born architect and blogger Raed Jarrar was prohibited from boarding a flight until he agreed to cover his T-shirt. Jarrar first spoke about the incident on Democracy Now! last year.

Raed Jarrar: “Then I was supposed to take my airplane, my JetBlue airplane from JFK to Oakland in California last Saturday. So I went to the airport in the morning, and I was prevented to go to my airplane by four officers, because I was wearing this T-shirt that says, 'We Will Not Be Silent,' in both Arabic and English. And I was told by one of the officials that wearing a T-shirt with Arabic script in an airport now is like going to a bank with a T-shirt that reads, 'I am a robber.'”

The American Civil Liberties Union and New York Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit against the TSA and jet Blue.