NEW YORK - January 19 - The American Civil Liberties Union will be in federal court Wednesday for a status hearing in its challenge to the denial of a visa to Swiss professor Tariq Ramadan. The ACLU contends that the government denied Ramadan entry to the U.S. not because of his actions but because of his vocal criticism of U.S. foreign policy.

Professor Tariq Ramadan is Chair of Contemporary Islamic Studies at St. Antony's College, University of Oxford. In 2004, he accepted a tenured position at the University of Notre Dame, but the U.S. government revoked his visa just days before he was to begin teaching there. The ACLU and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in 2006 challenging his exclusion on behalf of the American Academy of Religion, the American Association of University Professors and the PEN American Center.

More information about the case is available online at: www.aclu.org/national-security/american-academy-religion-v-napolitano-case-profile

WHAT:
Status hearing in Academy of Religion v. Napolitano, the ongoing case of Swiss professor Tariq Ramadan, who was denied entry to the U.S. on the basis of his political views

WHO:
Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, will appear before Judge Paul A. Crotty of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

WHEN:
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
3:30 p.m. EST

WHERE:
Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse
Courtroom 20C
500 Pearl St.
New York, New York