This is disturbing:

Miami federal court has 'secret docket' to keep some cases hidden from public

A secret docketing system hiding some sensitive Miami federal court cases from public view has been exposed and is being challenged in two higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

"We don't have secret justice in this country," said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Washington-based journalists watchdog group is asking the appellate courts to open up two Miami federal cases it says were litigated in secret....

One of the cases involved a waiter who allegedly served the wrong customers. For this he spent six months in detention and was made an official unperson:

Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel, 34, of Deerfield Beach, was arrested for a violating his student visa a month after the terror attacks. Although he sought his release in the District Court and appealed to the 11th Circuit, no public record of his case existed until his appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court....

...the case to detain Bellahouel was laid out in an FBI agent's affidavit. The FBI reportedly said Bellahouel served two of the Sept. 11 hijackers, Mohamed Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, at a Middle Eastern restaurant in Delray Beach. He also reportedly was seen at a nearby movie theater with a third hijacker, Ahmed Alnami....

Bellahouel was held at Krome detention center in southwest Miami-Dade County, testified before a federal grand jury in Virginia, and was released in March 2002 on a $10,000 immigration bond.

Bellahouel's appeal to open his files was denied by the 11th Circuit, which issued its decision -- under seal -- on March 31. Attorneys involved in the case are under a gag order and can't comment....

Disgusting.