Computer Ban Gave the Government Unfair Advantage in Anti-War Activist’s Case, Lawyer Says

An attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) who’s overseeing a high-profile deportation case in Louisiana says she was stripped of her electronics moments before a pivotal hearing, preventing her from accessing evidence and court records that remained available to the three US government attorneys in the room, each of whom were allowed use of a laptop by the court. Louisiana immigration judge Jamee Comans ruled late last month that Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil was eligible for deportation. During that hearing, however, Khalil’s attorney Nora Ahmed says she was barred from bringing her laptop into the courtroom, despite having filed the proper paperwork in advance and being a frequent visitor to the immigration facility. “There should not be an advantage, no matter how small or how large, provided to a particular party over the other,” says Ahmed. “Because that starts to infect the proceedings themselves and the notion of fundamental fairness that we all uph ... Read full article.