Homeland Security “watch list” results in lawsuit against federal government
A commercial airline pilot who alleges his job was threatened because his name was on a secret terrorist watch list can resume flying, according to a letter his lawyers released Tuesday. The pilot claims he was put on the list because he is Muslim.
The two-sentence letter from Colgan Air Inc. to the federal Transportation Security Administration confirmed that the Manassas, Va.-based regional carrier was allowing Erich Scherfen to return to work. It did not mention any watch list or the reason the company suspended Scherfen in April.
Scherfen, a New Jersey native who converted to Islam in 1994, and his wife, a native of Pakistan who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1980, sued the federal government last month. They claim their names were placed on the list because of their Muslim faith, in violation of their constitutional rights.
Since 2006, Scherfen and his wife have been subjected to searches,questioning and detention at airports and border crossings, accordingto their lawsuit. They say ticket agents and others made vaguereferences to their names being on lists, but there was no clearexplanation for the extra scrutiny.
Walczak said Scherfen’s lawyers will press ahead with the main lawsuit.
The couple “still don’t know what lists they are on, why they are on them or how to get off them,” he said.