Judge Tosses Suit Alleging NYPD Illegally Spied On Muslims
A federal judge has by putting New Jersey mosques under routine surveillance in an effort to prevent terrorism.
U.S. District Judge William Martini in Newark threw out a suit brought against the city's police department by eight Muslims living in the New Jersey community. They alleged that the surveillance program, which they said involved spying on mosques, restaurants and schools in the state since 2002, was unconstitutional because they were being targeted solely on the basis of their religion.
In his ruling, however, Martini wrote that: "The more likely explanation for the surveillance was to locate budding terrorist conspiracies."
"The police could not have monitored New Jersey for Muslim terrorist activities without monitoring the Muslim community itself," he wrote.
Martini concluded that plaintiffs were not hurt by the surveillance itself and that to the extent there may have been harm done, it was caused by a series of articles on the program published by the Associated Press.
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http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/02/21/280654646/judge-tosses-suit-alleging-nypd-illegally-spied-on-muslims