A US court said Tuesday that a civil rights lawsuit accusing New York City police of improperly singling out Muslims for surveillance could proceed, reversing a lower court’s decision last year to dismiss the case.
In its opinion, a three-judge US Court of Appeals panel rejected the city’s call to have the case dismissed and brushed aside any suggestion that media reports about the surveillance, rather than the surveillance itself, caused any harm.
Judge Thomas Ambro, who wrote the 59-page opinion for the panel, also cited dark chapters in American history — such as the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, for which the United States later apologized — as times when national security issues, civil liberties, and wartime fears inexorably collided.
‘‘We have learned from experience that it is often where the asserted interest appears most compelling that we must be most vigilant in protecting constitutional rights,’’ Ambro wrote.
The lawsuit contends that surveillance of Muslim people in New Jersey discriminated against them due to their religion. It was filed by Muslim Advocates, a legal advocacy group, and later joined by the Center for Constitutional Rights, another legal organization, on behalf of several Muslims who say they were unconstitutionally monitored by the New York Police Department.
‘‘I am so pleased the court recognized our claim that the NYPD is violating our basic rights as Americans and were wrong to do so,’’ Farhaj Hassan, lead plaintiff of the lawsuit, said in a statement released by the Center for Constitutional Rights. ‘‘No one should ever be spied on and treated like a suspect simply because of his or her faith, and today’s ruling paves the path to holding the NYPD accountable for ripping up the Constitution.’’
The New York City Law Department said it was reviewing the circuit court’s decision.
Last year, the NYPD disbanded the unit involved in the surveillance activities, a move that Mayor Bill de Blasio praised at the time as ‘‘a critical step forward in easing tensions between the police and the communities they serve.’’