Despite the high and lofty ideals set forth in the Constitution, all men are not treated equally (even though they are created as such) and because some of us rely heavily on fear, others' rights are taken away in the name of false security. Sometimes the silliest situations make for the best examples, such as what happened to Raed Jarrar at JFK as he was flying JetBlue back in 2006. In response to his wearing a t-shirt with Arabic writing on it, a few passengers made a ruckus and JetBlue forced him to change and sit in the back of the plane. Not a bright idea on their part, now it's payback time.
From The ACLU:
JetBlue and the TSA should be ashamed of themselves for this behavior. While ordinary passengers are entitled (unfortunately) to their ignorant fears, representatives of airlines and a government agency should know (or at least act) better and respect people's rights. A t-shirt with Arabic is just as threatening as one with English, Spanish, French or Farsi. It is time that Americans start to understand that.NEW YORK -- In a victory for constitutional rights, two Transportation Security Authority (TSA) officials and JetBlue Airways have paid Raed Jarrar $240,000 to settle charges that they illegally discriminated against the U.S. resident based on his ethnicity and the Arabic writing on his t-shirt. TSA and JetBlue officials prevented Jarrar from boarding his August 2006 flight at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport until he agreed to cover his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in English and Arabic, and then forced him to sit at the back of the plane. The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Jarrar’s behalf in August 2007.[...]
On August 12, 2006, Jarrar was waiting to board a JetBlue flight from New York to his home in Oakland, California, when he was approached by two TSA officials. One of them told Jarrar that he needed to remove his shirt because other passengers were not comfortable with the Arabic script, telling him that wearing a shirt with Arabic writing on it to an airport was like “wearing a t-shirt at a bank stating, ‘I am a robber.’”
Jarrar asserted his First Amendment right to wear the shirt, but eventually relented to the pressure from the TSA officials and two JetBlue officials who surrounded Jarrar in the gate area and made it clear to him that he would not be able to get on the plane until he covered up his shirt. Terrified about what they would do to him, Jarrar reluctantly covered up his shirt with a new t-shirt purchased for him by JetBlue. The lawsuit later revealed that JetBlue and the TSA officials did not consider Jarrar to be a security threat. Nevertheless, even after he put the new shirt on, Jarrar was allowed to board the plane only after JetBlue changed his seat from the front of the plane to the very back.
