Case Overview

On Friday, February 2, 2024, a coalition of 12 grassroots and civil-rights groups organized by and including Muslim Advocates filed an amicus (friend-of-the-court) brief, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to reinstate a lawsuit about the illegality of biased and discriminatory religious questioning by border agents of Black, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian (BAMEMSA) people.

The coalition filed the amicus brief in support of the three plaintiffs in Kariye v. Mayorkas, who sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its sub-agencies for targeting them at ports of entry as part of a larger pattern and practice of biased and discriminatory religious questioning of Muslims and other BAMEMSA people whom the government wrongly perceives to be Muslim. On multiple occasions, border agents targeted these Muslim-American plaintiffs for interrogation about their religious beliefs, practices, and associations—including through questions about their religious sect, the number of times they pray a day, whether they pray at a mosque, and which mosques they attend.

Case Details

Date filed: February 2, 2024

Court(s): United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit