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ACLU: JetBlue, TSA pay discrimination settlement
This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2009, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The American Civil Liberties Union said Monday JetBlue Airways Corp. and the Transportation Security Administration paid $240,000 to a man who claimed he was discriminated against based on his ethnicity and Arabic writing on his T-shirt.

Raed Jarrar alleged that the TSA and JetBlue officials prevented him from boarding a flight out of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport in August 2006 until he agreed to cover his shirt, which read "We Will Not Be Silent" in English and Arabic. Jarrar also claimed JetBlue eventually allowed him on the flight, but then made him sit at the back of the plane.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal civil rights lawsuit on Jarrar's behalf in August 2007.

A JetBlue spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment on the settlement.

TSA and JetBlue agreed to settle the case for $240,000 late last month and delivered the settlement to Jarrar on Friday, the ACLU said.

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