The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the New York Civil Liberties Union are suing a TSA official and JetBlue Airlines after the two parties refused to let a passenger, Raed Jarrar, board and airplane at John F. Kennedy International Airport wearing an Arabic-scripted T-shirt.

Jarrar, who was born in Iraq and emigrated to the United States in 2005, was asked by a TSA official, identified as "inspector Harris" to change his shirt. According to the ACLU, "Harris brought Jarrar to the JetBlue counter and told him that he would have to remove his shirt because other passengers were not comfortable with the Arabic script."

The event took place on August 12, 2006, just two days after British Metropolitan police broke apart a plot to blow us as many as a dozen airlines over the Atlantic ocean. At that time, US airports were on "red alert" — the first time in the history of the Department of Homeland Security.

A JetBlue employee bought Jarrar a new T-shirt at the airport gift shop which he wore over his own shirt. The Boston Globe has more:

Jarrar, who now lives in Washington, D.C., said he was intimidated into wearing a shirt purchased by a JetBlue customer service agent over his T-shirt. His seat was also moved to the back of the plane and he was forced to board first, said the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.  

In its press release, the ACLU wrote "Jarrar's case is part of a disturbing pattern of discriminatory acts at airports against individuals perceived to be Arab, especially those engaged in expressive activities that visibly display their ethnic background or religious faith."

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