On October 25, 2001, WLF filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, urging the court to overturn a lower court decision that threatens the power of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to detain illegal aliens suspected of terrorism pending completion of deportation proceedings. WLF argued (on behalf of a coalition that included numerous Members of Congress) that the INS does not violate the rights of such suspected terrorists even when its detention decisions are based in part on classified evidence not disclosed to the suspected terrorist. On December 5, 2001, WLF won a major victory when the appeals court held that the trial court had abused its discretion in imposing sanctions against the INS for detaining a suspected terrorist.