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

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...

(ACLU) on behalf of five victims of

extraordinary rendition Extraordinary rendition is a euphemism, euphemistically-named policy of state-sponsored abduction in a foreign jurisdiction and transfer to a third state. The best-known use of extraordinary rendition is in a United States-led program during th ...

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

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

(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 magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'', 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 that it has more than ten million members a ...

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

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

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 the ...

s who had been tortured in

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and a United States base in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran 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 (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

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'' (; alternatively ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank''; ) session is when all the judges of a court sit to hear a case, not just one judge or a smaller panel of judges. For courts like the United States Courts of Appeal ...

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 for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...

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

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. 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 2010 in United States case law United States tort case law