High Court Refuses to Hear Racial Profiling Case
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Warren Richey, Christian Science Monitor, October 7, 2008
The US Supreme Court has declined to hear the case of a man who was kicked off an American Airlines jetliner in Boston because a flight attendant thought he looked like a Middle Eastern terrorist.
John Cerqueira is an American citizen of Portuguese heritage who was trying to fly home to Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 28, 2003. Instead, he was escorted off the jetliner and questioned by police for two hours because American Airlines personnel thought his dark hair and olive complexion made him look Middle Eastern.
When police realized the mistake, they reported back that Mr. Cerqueira was cleared to travel. But American refused to issue him a ticket on any of its flights.
Cerqueira sued American Airlines for discrimination and won. An appeals court in Boston reversed that decision.
On Monday, the Supreme Court announced it would not examine the case. The justices offered no explanation for their decision. The action means the appeals court ruling throwing out Cerqueira’s case remains undisturbed.
At issue in the unusual case was a little-known law that authorizes air carriers to refuse to transport any passenger for safety reasons.
Cerqueira’s lawyers say the appeals court decision against their client is a judicial endorsement of discrimination and racial profiling.
{snip}
Cerqueira is not alone in his plight. Since 2001, the Department of Transportation has received 953 complaints of discrimination against US airlines, Mr. Kirkpatrick said.
Lawyers for American Airlines said the air carrier and its employees have a duty to protect the lives of all passengers and crew members on their flights. “If the pilot-in-command of an airliner concludes, based on information that comes to him, that there is or might be a safety hazard aboard his aircraft, [federal aviation law] authorizes him to act to protect the safety of the entire aircraft by removing a passenger from the aircraft before flight,” wrote Dallas lawyer Michael Powell in his brief on behalf of American Airlines.
The law does not provide carte blanche to the airlines, however. Airline officials are barred from exerting this statutory power in ways that are arbitrary or capricious.
{snip}
Cerqueira first attracted the attention of the flight attendant when he asked if he could change his seat assignment to an exit row. She told him he’d have to wait until the gate personnel arrived. The flight attendant later told the captain of Flight 2237 that Cerqueira had been “very hostile and extremely insistent that his seat be switched to an exit row seat,” according to the American Airlines brief.
{snip}
When Cerqueira tried to book a seat on the next flight for Fort Lauderdale, American refused to sell him a seat. His money was refunded and he flew home the next day on a different airline.
Cerqueira sued American for discrimination. A Boston jury awarded him $400,000 in compensatory and punitive damages. The appeals court reversed the decision and threw out the awards.
American Airlines argued that the courts must consider the propriety of a pilot’s decision not to transport a passenger in light of the cumulative information available to the pilot at the moment of decision—not with the benefit of hindsight and fact checking.
{snip}
(Posted on October 7, 2008)
Comments
If you have dark hair and dark skin don’t act like a jerk on airplanes. Simple as that.
Posted by Civilized Neighbor at 6:52 PM on October 7
So far there has not been one recorded case of a blue-eyed blonde toddler or a wheelchair-bound grandmother hijacking an airliner for any reason. So why are the security persons so concientiously screening them while letting swarthy skinned young males between the approximate ages of 18 and 30 swagger on and off the planes at ease? If an American citizen is a swarthy male between the ages of 18 and 30, and he is scrutinized a little more closely, he should be glad the airline personnel are alert. If he acts like a jerk, he deserves anything he gets.
Posted by at 7:46 PM on October 7
Anyone who acts like a jerk or in a threatening manner should be ejected from a plane, end of story. That is what it sounds like happened here. It would be different if someone was ejected merely for how he looked.
Posted by Spartan24 at 8:35 PM on October 7
The reason that the hate white America liberals Ginsburg Breyer & Co. let this obvious profiling case stand is because they like to fly in airplanes and they don’t want to get killed.
If it were only you or me that could get killed they would have been more than happy to strike a blow against racial profiling.
Posted by P Noctura at 10:17 PM on October 7
Telling this trash to behave on an airplane is like trying to explain the theory of relativity to a baby. He just won’t get it,no matter how hard you try to explain. NO brains, NO headaches, and I am so glad this judge had enough guts and brains to make the right call!! More judges should do the same!
Posted by lucylou at 11:03 PM on October 7
“John Cerqueira, an American citizen of Portuguese heritage…was escorted off the jetliner and questioned by police for two hours because American Airlines personnel thought his dark hair and olive complexion made him look Middle Eastern.”
……………..
Nonsense. This is ridiculous! There has to be a lot more to this story. Lots of people have dark hair or olive complexion and they aren’t being thrown off planes. And when American refused to give him a seat on the next flight as well, they surely had a reason. Evidently, he was an extremely difficult, hostile customer. Airlines are not in business for the fun of turning away customers. I can’t believe that everything is being told here.
Posted by ghw at 12:45 AM on October 8
There should be more profiling, not less. But it’s not possible to determine a person’s country of origin by looking at him. It’s not possible to determine a person’s religion by looking at him.
Posted by at 11:34 AM on October 8
Clearly this is not racial profiling. It is simply statistical profiling. 100% of the terrorists fit the profile.
Posted by EuroTexan at 11:54 AM on October 8
This sounds like a set up for the purpose of getting a big settlement. The guy is dark skinned and brunette. So he acted in a suspicious manner so as to file a discrimination suit.
With his Portuguese name rather than a middle eastern name, no airline personnel would have noticed him had he not gone out of his way to behave according to the standard profile of a potential terrorist.
Companies used to have to defend themselves against bogus slip and fall lawsuits. Nowdays it is bogus racial profiliing suits.
Posted by margaret at 12:11 PM on October 8
Dear ghw,
There is no rhyme or reason. Unless you are part of the
racial(black) minority you better watch yourselves. He was
probably acting like a jerk, lots of people do that on flights
But he did not deserve to be tossed out. Air Marshalls have
a lot to look out for in regards to passenger safety. Jerks
should not have to be one of them. Just try to reverse judgement
on blacks. It ain’t happening.
Thanks
Posted by at 1:30 PM on October 8
Don’t get abusive with airliner flight crew, no matter what you look like. An exit row seat is nice, because of the extra legroom, but receiving one is not a right.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 2:35 PM on October 8
“John Cerqueira, an American citizen of Portuguese heritage”
I also wonder what lies behind that vague description. Was he REAL Portuguese? I suspect not. A lot of blacks and other racial mixes (eg. Cape Verde islanders) try to slide by as “Portuguese”. If he were real Portuguese, he would not be mistaken for an Arab. And if he were real Portuguese, he would just say so.
Posted by at 3:39 PM on October 8
How could anyone profile a person named John Cerqueira, as middle eastern or arab??
Posted by at 8:16 PM on October 8
“At issue in the unusual case was a little-known law that authorizes air carriers to refuse to transport any passenger for safety reasons.”
…………………
It seems that this unruly, obnoxious passenger was endangering the transquility of the plane, was abusive to the personnel, and was removed for that good reason. There was NOTHING said about terrorism, Arabs, air marshalls, or anything about his race or complexion! That extra stuff was all inserted by HIM. Therefore, it seems that he is trying to make a racial case out of this incident in order to collect some big bucks. The court did the right thing by turning him down.
On a plane you get the seat you are pre-assigned. If you want a certain seat, you ask for it when you book, not demand it after you’re on board. The personnel try to be cooperative and will accommodate you as much as they can. But no one has the “right” to change their seat or to DEMAND another one. He asked for an exit row seat which, as Mr.Scott pointed out, are in demand by others because of their extra room. (Some airlines charge more.) Perhaps one wasn’t available. Their assignment is also restricted by federal law to certain people (you have to be physically capable and willing to assist the crew in evacuation, etc.). Not everyone is eligible for such a seat, and no one is guaranteed it. He would have to wait until the boarding was complete. The attendant did not refuse him, she merely told him he’d have to wait for permission from the gate agent — a perfectly reasonable answer. As I said, something is missing from his story. Or he has inserted more than was there.
Posted by ghw at 2:13 AM on October 9
“Portugese heritage” in this case is probably code for “Brazilian Zambo”, meaning black and Amerind.
Posted by Michael C. Scott at 2:23 PM on October 9
“Portugese heritage” in this case is probably code for “Brazilian Zambo”, meaning black and Amerind.
Posted by Michael C. Scott
I was thinking the same thing when I read that.
I have known people who claimed to be “Portuguese heritage”. But they were actually black.
Posted by at 6:32 AM on October 10
“Don’t get abusive with airliner flight crew, no matter what you look like. “
Posted by Michael C. Scott
Absolutely. They are in charge, and there is nothing you can do about it. You are going to be under their control for a number of hours, and if it’s a long flight they can make your life comfortable or miserable, so it pays to be nice.
I was once moved three times, to make room for family groups to sit together. The stewardess was very apologetic about asking me to move one more time, but i assured her it was no problem at all and I tried to be very gracious about it. (I expected nothing out of it.) I joked that she could put me out on the wing and I would still be happy. To my complete surprise, she beckoned me to follow her. She led me up front into First Class, pointed to a seat, and said “THAT seat will be YOURS” — a seat that would have cost me several thousand dollars more! After that, I was wined and dined from take-off to touch-down. Yes, it pays to be nice.
Posted by at 7:12 AM on October 10