After nine months of detaining Ann Arbor Muslim leader Rabih Haddad - officially for a visa violation and unofficially for alleged ties to terrorist organizations - it looks like the federal government might have to start taking Haddad's civil rights a little more seriously. Federal district court Judge Nancy Edmunds ordered on Tuesday that unless the government grants Haddad another deportation hearing before a new judge, he is to be released by next Friday. Regardless of Haddad's guilt or innocence, Edmunds' decision was correct; Haddad was not afforded basic rights guaranteed him under the U.S. Constitution during his detainment.

While Haddad was never charged with aiding terrorists, the manner in which he was arrested, his swift banishment to solitary confinement and limited contact with family members were not standard procedure for non-citizens in the process of applying for citizenship. The government always insisted that Haddad was only being charged with remaining in the United States on an expired visa. Despite the government's staunch refusals to provide information, most believed the real reason for Haddad's harsh treatment was his role as co-founder of the Illinois-based charity, Global Relief Fund; federal officials raided the charity's offices the same day Haddad was detained.

Haddad's treatment was technically legal under the USA Patriot Act, a monstrous and highly unconstitutional 342-page piece of federal legislation hastily passed following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

Despite government insistence that it was within its rights to detain Haddad, the community backlash was strong and immediate. Less than a month after Haddad was detained, the Ann Arbor City Council passed a resolution requesting open hearings and due process. Students Allied for Freedom and Equality brought Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann Arbor) and Michigan American Civil Liberties Union director Michael Steinberg to spend an evening in the Michigan Union Ballroom with upwards of 250 Ann Arbor residents, University students and other concerned community members, fielding questions about the rights of citizens versus the rights of non-citizens: "Persons - not citizens - is the word used over and over in the 14th Amendment," Rivers said, "and that use is deliberate and meaningful."

While Haddad's guilt or innocence of charges yet to be filed remains uncertain, his future within the American legal system should not be.The Ann Arbor community should be commended for its refusal to accept Sept. 11 as a valid excuse to send the Constitution through the paper shredder and for its unwavering to the phrase "innocent until proven guilty."