SECRET TERRORISM WATCHLIST FOUND UNCONSTITUTIONAL IN HISTORIC DECISION
All Eyes on the Watchlist
In a historic repudiation of a cornerstone of the post-9/11 global war on terror, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. government’s secretive terrorism watchlist is unconstitutional. Known as the Terrorist Screening Database, the watchlist included roughly 1.2 million people as of 2017, including about 4,600 U.S. citizens or green card holders, many of whom were subjected to arrests at gunpoint and hourslong interrogations.
The judge’s decision repeatedly cites a secret rulebook published by The Intercept in 2014 that detailed how an individual can be “nominated” to the watchlist as a “known or suspected terrorist” without any evidence that the person is actually a terrorist or has committed any crime.