The Associated Press said in a report published on ABC News that a federal judge ruling affirmed the legality of the surveillance of New Jersey Muslims by the New York Police Department in their efforts to thwart future terrorism acts. US District Judge William Martini of Newark dismissed a 2012 lawsuit filed by eight Muslims who insisted that the surveillance efforts of the NYPD were a civil rights violation.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit lodged against the department said that the programs of the NYPD were unconstitutional as it focused on race, religion and national origin. Moreover, the plaintiffs had accused the NYPD on spying on ordinary people in public places like mosques, restaurants and schools since 2002 in the state.
The news wire said that former Mayor Michael Bloomberg and ex-Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly were staunch supporters of the NYPD's anti-terrorism programs, and had said that the programs were vital to protect the city from acts of terrorism.
AP said the lawsuit came about after the news wire agency published a series of stories about how the NYPD conducted surveillance in several mosques and infiltrated Muslim student groups in New York and elsewhere based on confidential documents. Martini blamed the AP for using the documents and ultimately for the decision itself.
"The Associated Press covertly obtained the materials and published them without authorization. Thus the injury, if any existed, is not fairly traceable to the city," Martini wrote in his ruling.
The Center for Constitutional Rights in New York and the California-based civil rights organization Muslim Advocates said that the ruling was troubling for the Muslim communities in the US. CCR Legal Director Baher Azmy said, "In addition to willfully ignoring the harm that our innocent clients suffered from the NYPD's illegal spying program, by upholding the NYPD's blunderbuss Muslim surveillance practices, the court's decision gives legal sanction to the targeted discrimination of Muslims anywhere and everywhere in this country, without limitation, for no other reason than their religion."
