The American Civil Liberties Union is suing the federal government on behalf of a college student who was detained and interrogated for four hours because he was carrying a set of English-Arabic flashcards. The student, Nicholas George, says he was carrying the cards to help him learn Arabic as part of his college language studies. The cards had one word in English and Arabic printed on either side. George was detained at Philadelphia’s airport for over four hours, where he says he was handcuffed and harshly interrogated.

Nicholas George: “[The] four hours that I was in there, I could see them just pouring over my flashcards like they were going to find some secret on them. I saw them photocopying my flashcards. I heard them describing it on their phones to some superior, like, you know, 'Well, it's a small piece of paper with English writing on one side and Arabic writing on the other side.’ And the longer I was in there, it went — you know, you have the time to transition from being shocked to being really angry and saying, you know, this is just wrong, that they have nothing on me, I’ve done nothing wrong, and here I am locked in a cell for four hours.”

The ACLU lawsuit accuses the Transit Security Administration, the Philadelphia police and the FBI of violating George’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable seizure and his First Amendment right to free speech.