(WASHINGTON, D.C., 1/4/2022) – The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today announced that it has filed a petition for rehearing en banc in the Sixth Circuit case Elhady v. Unidentified CBP Agents, filed yesterday.
[NOTE: An “en banc” hearing is before all the judges of a court rather before just one judge or a smaller panel of judges.]
Anas Elhady is a U.S. citizen who was detained in 2015 in freezing conditions at the Ambassador Bridge for several hours until he passed out and required hospitalization. The District Court found that such actions violated Elhady’s clearly established constitutional rights. On appeal, the Sixth Circuit reversed without even reaching the constitutional issue, because it decided on its own that federal agents are not liable for violating people’s constitutional rights at the border.
SEE: Torture case against CBP officer in Detroit dismissed by federal judges
Elhady’s petition explains that it was wrong for the court to even decide such an issue when the government lawyers representing the federal agents did not even make that argument, and that its holding that federal agents are immune from the consequences of violating the Constitution at the border was contrary to the decisions of other Courts of Appeals.
SEE: Petition for Rehearing En Banc
“Anas’s clearly-established constitutional rights were ignored by a federal officer, to Anas’s great pain and suffering,” stated CAIR’s Civil Rights Director Lena Masri. “He deserves his day in court.”
“As first year law students know, in our adversarial process, the court decides the question before it as determined by the parties,” continued CAIR Trial Attorney Justin Sadowsky. “The court here went out of its way to decide an issue not in front of it. In doing so, it got the law entirely wrong.”
CAIR’s mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es mejorar la comprensión del Islam, proteger las libertades civiles, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Litigation Director Lena Masri, 202-642-4934, lmasri@cair.com; CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas, 720-251-0425, gabbas@cair.com; CAIR Trial Attorney Justin Sadowsky, 202-752-6440, jsadowsky@cair.com