Yesterday, as CNN reports, a federal judge dismissed all charges of illegally possessing and copying documents relating to national security that could have been used for espionage purposes against the U.S. against Chinese American Katrina Leung. The judge dismissed the case due to misconduct on the part of federal prosecutors:

“The government decided to make sure that Leung and her lawyers would not have access to Smith,” the judge said in her decision. “When confronted with what they had done, they engaged in a pattern of stonewalling entirely unbecoming to a prosecuting agency.”

This decision follows on the heals of recent similar decision that exonerated Asian Americans suspected of disloyalty and espionage against the U.S., such as Army Chaplain James Yee and nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee. In all these cases, overzealousness and blatant misconduct on the part of federal prosecutors ultimately played a part in the dismissal of the charges. All these dismissals also include the judge chastizing the federal prosecutors on their misconduct as well.

Lesson to be learned, once again: Just because someone is Asian American does not mean s/he is more likely than anybody else to be disloyal to the U.S. or to be a potential spy. Period.