On January 25, 2006, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit against the US government for denying Swiss Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan entry into the US under the Patriot Act's ideological exclusion provision. Ramadan, the grandson of the Muslim Brotherhood's founder Hassan al-Banna, could not accept a guest professorship from the University of Notre Dame because the provision allowed immigration officials to revoke his visa, citing a charitable gift to Hamas. The US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of the ACLU in July 2009, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton signed an order in January 2010 that authorized Ramadan's entry into the country.

Learn more about the Patriot Act from the JURIST news archive, and read an overview of The Legacy of 9/11 in Features.

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