Washington, D.C. –The Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR), the nation’s

oldest and most diverse coalition of civil and human rights organizations, today

announced its strong support for the five lawsuits filed today in federal court

challenging the practice of discrimination against individuals perceived to be Arab,

Middle Eastern or Muslim by four major U.S. airlines.

The lawsuits, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the American

Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), and Relman & Associates, a

Washington, D.C. based civil rights law firm, allege that the airlines, by denying

service to individuals only because of their perceived ethnicity, national origin, or

religion, violated state and federal civil rights laws, including 42 U.S.C. § 1981 and

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibit discrimination based on race,

color or national origin in the formation and enforcement of contracts and by

recipients of federal financial assistance, respectively.

“Our country has a deep-rooted tradition of combating discrimination and overt

prejudice against recognized groups of people,” said Wade Henderson, Executive

Director of the Leadership Conference. “This is no different. Treating people

differently only because of their perceived race, ethnicity, or religion is wrong. It was

Century.” “The battle for equality in commercial transportation is as old as the civil

rights movement,” continued Henderson. “This is Civil Rights 101.”

In the cases announced today, all of the individuals who were refused service by the

airlines had cleared all of the relevant security checks utilized by the airlines.

Nevertheless, they were not permitted to travel because of objections raised by other

passengers or crew members. “This is not about security; it is about unequal

treatment,” said Raul Yzaguirre of the National Council of La Raza. “We cannot allow

the ignorance and prejudice of a few to trump the civil rights of law-abiding members

of our society.”