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Government Wants To Bury Spy Lawsuit
Posted by Pile
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When the government told a court Friday that it wanted a class-action lawsuit regarding the National Security Agency's eavesdropping on Americans dismissed, its lawyers wielded one of the most powerful legal tools available to the executive branch -- the state secrets privilege.
That privilege allows the government to tell a judge that a civil case may expose information detrimental to national security, and to ask that testimony or documents be hidden or a lawsuit dismissed.
This seems to be a recurring theme. We all should try it. Next time you get pulled over, tell the policeman, "It's a matter of national security." Go beat up and detain someone; stop their right of free speech and expression -- just say, "National security." And apparently you can get away with anything.
"In a nutshell, invoking the privilege shuts down the judicial process and it says that the courthouse doors are closed," said Aftergood. "In a society ruled by law, that is a subversive action." |
That extraordinary executive power was established in English common law and upheld in a 1953 Supreme Court case involving the fatal crash of a secret bomber.
In this case, the government will be asking a federal judge in California to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against AT&T for its alleged complicity in warrantless government surveillance of its customer's internet and telephone communications. The EFF alleges that AT&T gave the government access to a massive phone billing database and helped the NSA spy on its customers' internet use.
But what exactly is the privilege, and how powerful is it?
The state secrets privilege cannot be found in the U.S. Code, the code of federal regulations or the Constitution. Instead, it is a part of common law, the body of laws and precedents created over centuries of legal decisions. When the government believes that a civil suit might reveal secrets injurious to the country, the head of the appropriate government agency must review the matter and submit a signed affidavit attesting to the danger of the lawsuit or documents that might be disclosed.
Judges almost invariably agree to such requests, according to William Weaver, a law professor and senior adviser to the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition.
"It's like one of magic rings from The Lord of the Rings," Weaver said. "You slip it on and you are invisible -- you are now secret. |
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