A federal judge has ruled that individuals placed on the U.S. government's no-fly list, barring them from traveling in or through U.S. airspace, have been denied their constitutional right to due process.

The decision was four years in the making. The ACLU has been arguing on behalf of 13 plaintiffs challenging their inclusion on the list.

U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said the government must come up with a new way that the plaintiffs can contest being on the list.

In a 65-page ruling, she said that current procedure for challenging inclusion was "wholly ineffective."

"The procedures afforded to plaintiffs ... fall short of the 'elementary and fundamental requirement of due process' to be afforded 'notice reasonably calculated, under all the circumstances, to apprise interested parties of the pendency of the action and afford them an opportunity to present objections,'" she wrote.

Placement on the no-fly list can be a frustrating situation. The reasons behind being placed on the list are a secret, which makes getting off the list difficult if not impossible.

The ACLU, which argued the case on the plaintiffs' behalf, hailed the decision as a victory.

"For years, in the name of national security the government has argued for blanket secrecy and judicial deference to its profoundly unfair No Fly List procedures, and those arguments have now been resoundingly rejected by the court," said ACLU National Security Project Director Hina Shamsi wrote in a statement.

“Our clients will finally get the due process to which they are entitled under the Constitution. This excellent decision also benefits other people wrongly stuck on the No Fly List, with the promise of a way out from a Kafkaesque bureaucracy causing them no end of grief and hardship," she wrote.

Brown wrote that the plaintiffs must be provided notice of why they are on the list, and that they should be able to submit evidence on their behalf.

No Fly List Ruling - Latif v. Holder - 6-24-14

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