A group of Muslim citizens and organizations asked a federal appellate court on Tuesday to overturn a ruling that said New York City police were allowed to conduct surveillance on Muslims living in New Jersey who were not suspected of committing a crime.
The plaintiffs argued that New York police surveillance violated their rights because it targeted them based on their religion, Reuters reported. The group included New Jersey imams, business owners, a war veteran and a student group.
A panel of three judges is set to decide whether their claim is eligible to move to a trial court.
"There's no reason that the people of my community, my mosque, or any other individual should be treated like a second-class citizen by law enforcement just because of their faith," said Farhaj Hassan, lead plaintiff and Iraq war veteran, reported The Record.
A lawyer for the group, Baher Azmy, said the New Jersey Muslims were singled out in ways other religious groups were not.
But Peter Farrell, a lawyer for New York City, said that surveillance done in public places was harmless, adding that any injuries claimed were "self-imposed" and "based on subjective fears," Reuters reported.
The group first sued the city in 2012 after The Associated Press reported on the program, but a federal judge dismissed the case last February, saying that there was no harm caused by the surveillance program. U.S. Judge William Martini said that if any harm was caused, it was caused by the AP articles that revealed the program, according to Reuters.
On Tuesday, judges raised questions over the wide surveillance net, and said that "concrete" harm could be proven if attendance at mosques fell or businesses lost money due to the surveillance, reported The Record.
However, there are legitimate reasons for the surveillance, according to Judge Jane Roth, who cited the 9/11 attacks and the recent attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
New York City police have since stopped the surveillance program that used plainclothes officers to monitor Muslims in bookstores, restaurants and mosques in Newark, Paterson and other New Jersey cities.
