On December 18, 2009, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that post-arrest detention is legal in cases where the detainees are reasonably detained. The case, Turkmen v. Ashcroft, challenged the alleged racial profiling, arbitrary detention and abuse of Muslim, Arab and South Asian men detained after September 11, 2001. The ruling affirmed that immigration law can be used as a pretext for detention, and that there is "no authority clearly establishing an equal protection right to be free of selective enforcement of the immigration laws based on national origin, race, or religion at the time of plaintiffs' detentions."



Learn more about detentions by the US government from the JURIST news archive.