SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 22: A US judge has ruled that a lawsuit filed by six imams against US Airways and a Minneapolis airport can proceed. The lawsuit was filed by the six imams who say that they were singled out because they prayed prior to getting on the plane. The imams, returning home from the North American Conference of Imams on Nov 20, 2006, were taken off the plane handcuffed and detained for several hours.

In a 41-page opinion, Judge Ann Montgomery, in Minneapolis, said that the imams have a plausible claim that their constitutional rights may have been violated.

The imams “have adequately stated a claim” that airport police may have “seized plaintiffs in violation of their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures,” Judge Montgomery ruled.