A district court in Detroit has ruled that the US government violated the constitutional rights of a Lebanese man arrested after the September 11th attacks by subjecting him to secret detention and deportation hearings.
Judge Nancy Edmunds of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan also ruled that Mr Rabih Haddad, the Michigan-based founder of an Islamic charity who was arrested in December, 2001, for overstaying his tourist visa, should be freed within 10 days or granted new hearings that are open to public scrutiny.
Legal experts have said the Haddad case, which is likely to go before the US Supreme Court, could set a precedent for hundreds of foreign men of Arab and Muslim background rounded up after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
"It is well established that aliens subject to deportation are entitled to due process protections afforded by the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, Judge Edmunds wrote.
"Courts have found that an open hearing is fundamental to guarantee a fair hearing," she said.
Her decision was in line with two earlier rulings against the government's insistence on closed hearings in the case of Mr Haddad. The hearings were closed under a policy unveiled after September 11th that allows Attorney General Mr John Ashcroft to declare certain cases "special interest" proceedings that can be conducted in secret.