Remember back in October, 2010 when a student, Yasir Afifi, found a GPS device attached to his car and he filed a lawsuit against the FBI in 2011? Not surprisingly, the DOJ sought dismissal of the lawsuit in July, 2011.
I lost track of the lawsuit, but thankfully, Courthouse News didn’t. Today, they report that a federal judge has thrown out his lawsuit:
Finding that the FBI agents are entitled to qualified immunity, Howell said that “neither the Fourth Amendment nor First Amendment rights he [Afifi] seeks to vindicate in this suit were clearly established at the time and in the place where the challenge conduct occurred.”
The Privacy Act claim meanwhile fails because the records about Afifi’s First Amendment represent “an authorized law enforcement activity,” an exception to the law.
Read more on Courthouse News.
Thanks to Joe Cadillic for this link.