The Flying Imams Win and the Rest of Us Lose

The Weekly Standard:  “The case of the flying imams who were removed in November 2006 from a USAirways flight in Minneapolis for questioning by law enforcement authorities concluded in the Minnesota federal district court before Judge Ann Montgomery.  The parties arrived at a settlement of the case on October 20 in a court-supervised conference.  The amounts paid by the defendants remain confidential.  The case drew national attention–including that of Congress, which passed a law protecting private citizens who report suspicious activity and law enforcement authorities who act in good faith on the information.  The imams had named USAirways passengers who raised concerns about their behavior as John Doe defendants in their original complaint, but later dropped the passengers.”