Muslims Continue Challenging FBI For Spying On California Mosques After Supreme Court Ruling

Muslims in Orange County, California who are suing the FBI for sending an informant to spy on mosques will keep fighting the case in lower courts after a narrow US Supreme Court ruling favoring the FBI.

The ruling could mean the FBI can invoke a secrecy privilege claiming a threat to national security, by publicly litigating its use of an informant to spy on mosques.

It could also make it more difficult to prove the FBI violated the First Amendment rights of Orange County Muslims, their lawyers said.

Patrick Toomey, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Security Project, said it’s “a dangerous sign for religious freedom and government accountability.”