AIRPORT SECURITY Detainee's suit settled

ACLU called the arrest a clear case of racial profiling.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The Transportation Security Administration has made changes to its air marshal program as part of a settlement of a lawsuit alleging that armed air marshals detained a physician of Indian descent solely because of his dark skin.
Dr. Bob Rajcoomar, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the government in April after he was detained four hours by air marshals after an Aug. 31 flight from Atlanta to Philadelphia. He was eventually released and no charges were filed.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam said he was satisfied that the Transportation Security Administration is complying with the terms of a settlement agreement that called for the agency to change its "policies and training procedures regarding the allegations in the complaint."
The agency also agreed to pay Rajcoomar $50,000 in damages and have TSA's administrator, retired Coast Guard Adm. James Loy, issue a written apology to Rajcoomar and his wife, Dorothy.
"It really is precedential," said Stefan Presser, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Philadelphia and one of Rajcoomar's lawyers. "This is the first time since Homeland Security was established that any branch of Homeland Security has had to satisfy a federal judge that it was complying with the Constitution."
Reaction
Rajcoomar told a news conference in Florida that he feels "much better" now that there is a settlement. After his arrest, he said, he was "shocked, horrified and intended to get the hell out of the United States. I couldn't understand what was going on.
"I hope that other people won't have to go through this horror," Rajcoomar said. "I'm a very staunch American. I eat hamburgers and hot dogs. This was a real shock to me."
The agency's report to the judge on its revised policies and procedures is sealed. TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield said he couldn't comment.
Shortly after Rajcoomar's flight took off, marshals detained an unruly passenger seated in coach, then trained their guns on passengers and ordered them not to move until the plane landed.
Rajcoomar, who lives in Atlantis, Fla., said in the lawsuit he had nothing to do with the disturbance and obeyed all instructions, but was handcuffed anyway at the end of the flight. He said one of the agents explained by saying, "We didn't like the way you looked."
Rajcoomar said he was held in a cell for hours while the marshals searched his belongings. He said the agents never informed his wife, who was sitting in a different part of the plane, that he had been detained and that she had spent hours frantically searching for him in the terminal.
The ACLU said the government's official explanation for Rajcoomar's treatment was that he "had been observing [the actions of the air marshals] too closely." But the ACLU called his arrest a clear example of racial profiling.