In a first, TSA announces 7 Americans removed from no-fly list

[Newsjock]

Source: Ars Technica

For the first time, the government is removing seven Americans from the no-fly list to comport with a federal judge's ruling that the methods to challenge placement on the watch list were "wholly ineffective."

Federal authorities notified the American Civil Liberties Union—which is representing 13 people who sued to get off the list—of its decision (PDF) late Friday. The government has until January to deal with the other six plaintiffs the ACLU is handling.

The government's actions are in response to a June decision by US District Judge Anna Brown of Oregon, who ruled that the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program run by the Department of Homeland Security was unconstitutional and does not provide "a meaningful mechanism for travelers who have been denied boarding to correct erroneous information in the government's terrorism databases."

... Federal agencies have nominated more than 1.5 million names to terrorist watch lists over the past five years alone. Yet being a terrorist isn't a condition of getting on a roster that, until now, has been virtually impossible to be removed from, according to a leaked US "Watchlisting Guidance" manual. Judge Brown's decision is expected to help others challenge their placement on the list.

Read more: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/10/in-a-first-tsa-announces-7-americans-removed-from-no-fly-list/

[Nye Bevan]

1. The no-fly list is a due-process violating abomination.

Nobody should be placed on it without being found guilty of a relevant crime in court.

[cstanleytech]

2. I agree to a point in that being convicted should play a larger role

in determining who is placed on the lists but thats not always possible though if its someone in a foreign country thats considered a threat.
So really the lists kinda make sense but it needs to be changed so there are temporary lists that someone can be placed on for no more than 2 weeks without a renewal option and longer lists that take a judge to sign off on and not one of the FISA judges rather a real judge in a real court.
Furthermore once someone is placed on either list the person is notified no later than 48 hours later if possible and there should be an appeal process and not one that the government can drag out for years and the person shouldnt have to pay for filing the appeal or paying a lawyer rather the government should foot the entire bill.
Plus a persons name shouldnt remain forever on the long term list it should fall off after say a year at most and if the government wants the name added again it needs to get a different judge to sign off on it yet again and each time the persons name is added they get another try at appealing it.