In a decision issued last week, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has offered the first appellate opinion on whether there is any basis in law for the U.S. government’s creation and use of a system of “watchlists” (blacklists) to determine who is allowed to travel by air and how they are treated when they travel, as well as to impose other sanctions.

Numerous lawsuits have challenged various aspects of the government’s blacklisting system and its application to airline passengers, but this is the first time that any U.S. appellate court has ruled on whether Congress has given the various agencies that created, maintain, and use these lists any statutory authority to so so.

The 5th Circuit panel found multiple mentions in Federal law of the use “databases” for “screening” of airline passengers. But that begs the question that was actually presented. As the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) argued in their brief on appeal:

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