''Mohamed et al. v. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc.'', is a case brought by the

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

(ACLU) on behalf of five victims of

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism for state-sponsored forcible abduction in another jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The phrase usually refers to a United States-led program used during the War on Terror, which had the purpos ...

s against Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc., which had provided services that the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

(CIA) used to perform renditions.

Background

According to an article that appeared in October 2006 in ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'', the CIA is a Jeppesen customer. The article claims that the company has provided navigational and logistics support to the agency's extraordinary rendition program. The article says Jeppesen provided "flight plans, clearance to fly over other countries, hotel reservations, and ground-crew arrangements" to the CIA. According to the article, an unnamed former employee quoted Bob Overby, Jeppesen's managing director, as saying at a meeting, "We do all of the extraordinary renditions flights—you know, the torture flights. ... Let's face it, some of those flights end up that way... It certainly pays well." On November 16, 2006,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

staged a demonstration in front of the company's International Trip and Flight Planning Office in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...

to protest their involvement in the rendition program. In December 2006 representatives of the South Bay Mobilization for Peace and Justice group asked the San Jose City Council to remove a Jeppesen banner from a city skating rink. The group also holds a weekly vigil at the company's offices.

ACLU lawsuit

On May 30, 2007, the ACLU sued Jeppesen on behalf of five

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...

s who had been tortured in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

and a United States base in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is borde ...

. The suit alleged that, since 2001, Jeppesen provided support for at least seventy flights for the CIA's secret extraordinary rendition program, transporting prisoners overseas to be tortured. The suit was dismissed in February 2008 on a motion from the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

government, on the theory that proceeding with the case would reveal state secrets and endanger relations with other nations that had cooperated. On September 8, 2010, in a 6–5

en banc In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller p ...

ruling, the

United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

affirmed the dismissal of the suit, and the ACLU filed an appeal with the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

in December 2010. On May 16, 2011, the Supreme Court declined to review the decision of the Ninth Circuit to dismiss the case.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mohamed Et Al. V. Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. Boeing United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit cases United States tort case law