In August 2002, Dr Bob Rajcoomar, a Florida physician and a retired lieutenant colonel in the US army reserves, was allegedly handcuffed and taken off a Delta Airlines flight after it landed at the Philadelphia International Airport.
The reason? The Transportation Security Administration personnel on board the flight did not like the way he looked. In fact, according to court documents, TSA agents provided only two explanations: "We didn't like the way you look" and "we didn't like the way you looked at us".
Last week, under a US federal court-supervised settlement, TSA head Admiral James Loy agreed to apologise to Dr Rajcoomar and his wife Dorothy; pay $50,000 as compensation for the detention of Dr Rajcoomar and substantially alter the air security agency's policies and training procedures to ensure that the incident is not repeated.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of Dr Rajcoomar against the TSA and two of its employees in individual capacity in April this year in the US District Court for the Eastern District Court of Pennsylvania, called the settlement unprecedented, as this would be the first time that an agency within the US Department of Homeland Security will be required to change its policies.
"Today's settlement is important because it has forced the TSA to take steps that should prevent air marshals from subjecting passengers to arrests solely because of race and ethnicity," said Stefan Presser, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, who served as the lead counsel in the lawsuit.
James K Green, a West palm beach attorney, who represented Dr Rajcoomar, said the TSA would act in response to the lawsuit generally and specifically as part of the settlement.
"What they had to do was to report to the federal judge as to what measure they have proposed to take to reform, and if judge John P Fullam was not satisfied with the measures, then he would have rejected the settlement. The settlement, thus, was contingent on their taking measures," he said. However, Green admitted that the TSA 'did not show us the information' because it is sensitive nature.
"This was racial profiling at its worst," Presser said in a statement. "There is absolutely no legal or factual justification for why the air marshals treated Dr Rajcoomar the way they did."
But presumably the judge did not explicitly say whether it was a case of racial profiling. "We believe that legally there is no statement here that says that it was racial profiling," Presser told rediff.com when asked if the allegation of racial profiling was accepted.
"We alleged that he was subjected to racial profiling. They, without saying that that is what happened, agreed to take steps that would prevent racial profiling," Presser said. "In fact, I would say that our assertions (about racial profiling) were accepted. After all, what they (TSA) would correct -- they would correct what has happened to Dr Rajcoomar and obviously what happened to him was racial profiling."
Commenting on Judge Fullam's order outlining the three-part settlement, Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida, said the settlement reinforces the principle that no agency of the government is above the law.
"Even the actions of the officials of Homeland Security are subject to the United States Constitution and to the review of an independent federal judiciary."
The lawsuit alleged that the treatment meted out to Dr Rajcoomar constituted false arrest, battery, false imprisonment, unlawful search and unlawful invasion of privacy.
Dr Rajcoomar could not immediately be reached for comments. But during a press conference last week, he said he never expected to be a victim of discrimination at the hands of federal agents. "I am a very staunch American. I eat hamburgers and hot dogs," the Palm Beach Post quoted him as saying.