When it comes to college students applying to our best schools, Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA) likes discriminating on the basis of race. But when it comes to safeguarding Americans of all colors against terrorists, Chu thinks those who in “good faith” report suspicious behavior ought to be sued if they “racially profile.”

“If a person contacts law enforcement about something based solely on someone’s race, religion, ethnicity or national origin, they would not receive immunity from civil lawsuits,” Chu warned at the House Judiciary committee on July 20. Chu offered to amend the “See Something Say Something Act of 2011” to strip legal protection for people coming forward to help law enforcement. (The House Judiciary Committeee, fortunately, ignored her and voted to send the bill on to the full House.)

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She might well have renamed her amendment the “See Something Get Sued” Act of 2011 because that is exactly what some Democrats, beholden to their trial lawyer friends, want.

Take, for instance, the example of the “Flying Imams” case, which attracted national attention nearly five years ago. In November 20, 2006, airline officials removed six imams from flying to Phoenix from Minneapolis after their fellow travelers raised suspicion about their behavior. The imams, who had prayed at the departure gate, had asked for seat extenders–which can be used as weapons–and had asked for a seat change pre-flight aroused the suspicion of their fellow passengers who promptly complained to the crew. They spoke loudly in Arabic prior to the flight.

Passengers informed the crew and the “flying imams” never took flight. Instead, they lawyered up with the Hamas “front group”, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and on March 12, 2007, filed suit against the airline, Minneapolis Metropolitan Airports Commission, and the anonymous “Joe Doe” passengers who noted their suspicious behavior. CAIR, which refuses significant Saudi financing, paid for everything. (The suit was ultimately dismissed against the passengers, but it proceeded against the airlines.)

A vigilant public is what time and again has foiled terrorist plots–from the passengers on United 93 who formed a citizen militia that took back the plane after learning of the other planes’ fate to a teenage video clerk who, seeing a jihadist training video, helped upend the Fort Dix plot.

The New York Post reported on what was going through the young man’s head:

“Dude, I just saw some really weird s-,” he told a co-worker. He wondered what to do. In words too commonly said today, he wondered: “Should I call someone or is that being racist?”

Thankfully, he called the cops. Judy Chu and her allies in Congress would have him calling his lawyer first, if he called anyone at all.