State secrets privilege
The state secrets privilege is an
Following a claim of "state secrets privilege", the court rarely conducts an in camera examination of the evidence to evaluate whether there is sufficient cause to support the use of this doctrine. This results in court rulings in which even the judge has not verified the veracity of the assertion. The privileged material is completely removed from the litigation, and the court must determine how the unavailability of the privileged information affects the case.[4]
Function
The purpose of the state secrets privilege is to prevent courts from revealing state secrets in the course of civil litigation. The government may intervene in any civil suit, including when it is not a party to the litigation, to ask the court to exclude state secrets evidence. While the courts may examine such evidence closely, in practice they generally defer to the Executive Branch. Once the court has agreed that evidence is subject to the state secrets privilege, it is excluded from the litigation. Often, as a practical matter, the plaintiff cannot continue the suit without the privileged information, and drops the case.[5]
Distinguished from other legal doctrines
The state secrets privilege is related to, but distinct from, several other legal doctrines: the principle of non-justiciability in certain cases involving state secrets (the so-called "Totten Rule");[6] certain prohibitions on the publication of classified information (as in New York Times Co. v. United States, the Pentagon Papers case); and the use of classified information in criminal cases (governed by the Classified Information Procedures Act).
History
Origins
The doctrine was effectively imported from
Supreme Court recognition in United States v. Reynolds
The privilege was first officially recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States in United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1 (1953). A military airplane crashed. The widows of three civilian crew members sought accident reports on the crash but were told that to release such details would threaten national security by revealing the bomber's top-secret mission.[2][8] The court held that only the government can claim or waive the privilege, but that it “is not to be lightly invoked”[9] and that there “must be a formal claim of privilege, lodged by the head of the department which has control over the matter, after actual personal consideration by that officer.”[7] The court stressed that the decision to withhold evidence is to be made by the presiding judge and not the executive.
In 2000, the accident reports were declassified and released, and it was found that the assertion that they contained secret information was untrue.[10]
Recent use
According to former White House Counsel, John Dean:
While precise numbers are hard to come by (because not all cases are reported), a recent study reports that the "Bush administration has invoked the state secrets privilege in 23 cases since 2001." By way of comparison, "between 1953 and 1976, the government invoked the privilege in only four cases."[11]
These figures were later retracted, as they were based on erroneous information:
Correction: In this article, we incorrectly reported that the government invoked the state secrets privilege in 23 cases since 2001. The figure came from the 2005 Secrecy Report Card published by OpenTheGovernment.org. The privilege was actually invoked seven times from 2001 to 2005, according to the corrected 2005 report card, which is not an increase from previous decades.[12]
Following the
Criticism
Since 2001, there has been mounting criticism of the state secrets privilege. Such criticism generally falls into four categories:
Weak external validation of executive assertion of privilege
Many commentators have expressed concern that the courts never effectively scrutinize executive claims of privilege.[7] Lacking independent national security expertise, judges frequently defer to the judgment of the executive and never subject executive claims to meaningful scrutiny.
Executive abuse of the privilege to conceal embarrassing facts
Commentators have suggested that the state secrets privilege might be used to prevent disclosure of embarrassing facts as often as it is invoked to protect legitimate secrets.[7][2][15] In the words of Professors William G. Weaver and Robert M. Pallitto in a Political Science Quarterly article:
[T]he incentive on the part of administrators is to use the privilege to avoid embarrassment, handicap political enemies, and to prevent criminal investigation of administrative action.[12][16]
In several prominent cases, the evidence that the government successfully excluded was later revealed to contain no state secrets: United States v. Reynolds, Sterling v. Tenet, Edmonds v. Department of Justice, and the Pentagon Papers.
Expansion into a justiciability doctrine
Some academics and practitioners have criticized the expansion of the state secrets privilege from an evidentiary privilege (designed to exclude certain pieces of evidence) to a justiciability doctrine (designed to exclude entire lawsuits). Under its original formulation, the state secrets privilege was meant only to exclude a very narrow class of evidence whose revelation would harm national security. However, in a large percentage of recent cases, courts have gone a step further, dismissing entire cases in which the government asserts the privilege, in essence converting an evidentiary rule into a justiciability rule. The government response has been that in certain cases, the subject of the case is itself privileged. In these cases, the government argues, there is no plausible way to respond to a complaint without revealing state secrets.
Elimination of judicial check on executive power
Calls for reform
In recent years, a number of commentators have called for legislative reforms to the state secrets privilege.[20] These reforms center around several ideas:
- Requiring judges to review each piece of evidence that the executive claims is subject to the privilege.[21][22]
- Requiring the executive to craft alternative evidence that is not subject to the privilege, for the opposing party to use in place of the original, privileged evidence.[21] Such substitute evidence should only be required when it is possible to do so without harming national security.
- Prohibiting courts from dismissing claims on the basis of the state secrets privilege until after they have reviewed all available evidence.
- Permitting the court to appoint an outside expert to scrutinize the evidence for national security content.
- Excluding illegal government action from the definition of "state secrets," or otherwise allowing the court to address the legality (instead of just the secrecy) of government conduct. This would prevent the government from using the state secrets privilege to conceal its illegal conduct.
On January 22, 2008, Senators
Court cases
United States v. Reynolds
In United States v. Reynolds (1953), the widows of three crew members of a
Richard Horn
Former DEA agent Richard Horn brought a suit against the CIA for bugging his home. The case was dismissed because of the privilege.[7][8]
Richard Horn's case was reinstated on July 20, 2009, by U.S. District Court Judge Royce C. Lamberth on the basis that the CIA had engaged in fraud on the court.
On March 30, 2010, as a result of a multimillion-dollar settlement agreement between Horn and the government, Lamberth dismissed the underlying case with prejudice. Subsequently, later that same year, in a September 22 order, Lamberth issued a final order vacating his earlier opinions and orders finding that Arthur Brown, the former CIA station chief in Burma,[25] and George Tenet had committed fraud on the court. Lamberth also specifically ordered that a sentence be removed from his March 30, 2010 Memorandum. The removed sentence had stated that "allegations of wrongdoing by the government attorneys in this case are not only credible, they are admitted".
Notra Trulock
In February 2002, it was invoked in the case of Notra Trulock, who launched a defamation suit against Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, falsely charged with stealing nuclear secrets; President Bush stated that national security would be compromised if Trulock were allowed to seek damages from Lee; though it resulted in the case being dismissed, another suit was launched directly attacking then-FBI Director Louis Freeh for interfering and falsely invoking the state secrets privilege.
Sibel Edmonds
The privilege was invoked twice against Sibel Edmonds.
Thomas Burnett
The privilege was invoked in Thomas Burnett vs. Al Barka Investment & Development Corporation (Civil No. 04ms203) a motion to quash a subpoena for the testimony of Sibel Edmonds. The government's motion to quash based on state secrets privilege was granted in part.
Sterling v. Tenet
Jeffrey Sterling was an
Nira Schwartz
The privilege was invoked in Schwartz vs. TRW (Civil No. 96-3065, Central District, California) a qui tam claim by Schwartz. Intervention and assertion of the state secrets privilege, by the government, resulted in case dismissal.[26]
Crater Corporation
The privilege was invoked in the
ACLU vs. NSA
On May 26, 2006, the
Center for Constitutional Rights et al. v. Bush et al.
On May 27, 2006, the Justice Department moved to preempt the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) challenge to warrantless domestic surveillance by invoking the state secrets privilege. The Bush administration argued that CCR's case could reveal secrets regarding U.S. national security, and thus the presiding judge must dismiss it without reviewing the evidence.
Hepting v. AT&T
In April 2006, the Bush administration took initial steps to use the state secrets rule to block a lawsuit against
in the case of a covered civil action, the assistance alleged to have been provided by the electronic communication service provider was in connection with an intelligence activity involving communications that was authorized by the President during the period beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on January 17, 2007; designed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack, or activities in preparation for a terrorist attack, against the United States; and the subject of a written request or directive, or a series of written requests or directives, from the Attorney General or the head of an element of the intelligence community (or the deputy of such person) to the electronic communication service provider indicating that the activity was authorized by the President; and determined to be lawful.[33]
Khalid El-Masri
In May 2006, the illegal detention case of
Maher Arar
The privilege was invoked against a case where
Jane Doe et al. v. CIA
On January 4, 2007, District Court Judge Laura Taylor Swain ordered the dismissal of Jane Doe et al. v. CIA, 05 Civ. 7939 based on the state secrets privilege, as it would endanger the "weapons systems [..] of our nation's warships". Jane Doe and her children sued the CIA after her husband's covert employment with the CIA was "terminated immediately for unspecified reasons" and they were forced to leave USA for a country where the plaintiff remains a "virtual prisoner in her home".[37]
Enterprises Shipping & Trading v. United Against Nuclear Iran
In July 2013, Greek shipping magnate Victor Restis brought a defamation lawsuit against UANI for claiming that his companies were "front men for the illicit activities of the Iranian regime." In March 2015, the case of the Obama administration and Department of Justice stated that details about United Against Nuclear Iran are subject to U.S. state secrets privilege, and would do "harm to national security if the information were disclosed."[38][39]
General Dynamics Corp. v. United States
In the 2011 General Dynamics case, the court unanimously held that "when litigation would end up disclosing state secrets, courts may not try the claims and may not award relief to either party."[40]
Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga
During 2006 to 2007, the FBI had an informant Craig Monteilh to integrate into the Muslim Islamic Center of Irvine in Irvine, California and plant electronic surveillance within the mosque and members' homes and offices. Monteilh's role was terminated by the FBI after they lost confidence with him, and he ended up in prison on separate drug charges, where he was stabbed repeatedly for being a snitch. He filed suit against the FBI for failing to protect him, revealing extensive details of his informant role. Members of the Islamic Center of Irvine filed suit against the FBI for numerous charges related to violation of their rights in 2011, but the FBI asserted that the case should be dropped by evoking their state secrets privilege, as litigation would be a threat to national security. The district court ruled for the FBI, but the Ninth Circuit reversed in part, stating that under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 1806(f), the plaintiffs' right to seek legal action overrode the FBI's privilege.[41] The FBI petitioned to the Supreme Court, which, in March 2022, ruled unanimously that the FISA does not displace the state secrets privilege, overturning the Ninth Circuit's ruling.[42]
Case citations
- Totten v. United States, 92 U.S. 105 (1876)
- United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1 (1953)
- Tenet v. Doe, 544 U.S. 1 (2005)
- General Dynamics Corp. v. United States, 563 U.S. 478 (2011)
- United States v. Zubaydah, No. 20-827, 595 U.S. ___ (2022)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga, No. 20-828, 595 U.S. ___ (2022)
Quotes
- "The state secrets privilege is a common law evidentiary rule that allows the government to withhold information from discovery when disclosure would be inimical to national security." – Zuckerbraun v. General Dynamics Corp., 935 F.2d 544, 546 (2d Cir. 1991).
See also
- Espionage Act of 1917
- Mosaic theory of intelligence gathering
- Unitary executive theory
- Federal Tort Claims Act
- Classified Information Procedures Act
- State Secrets Protection Act
- Silent witness rule
Further reading
- Arnold, Jason Ross (2014). Secrecy in the Sunshine Era: The Promise and Failures of U.S. Open Government Laws. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0700619924. See chapter 6.
References
- ^ a b c d Kadidal, Shayana (30 May 2006). "The State Secrets Privilege and Executive Misconduct". JURIST Legal News and Research Services. Archived from the original on 11 July 2011. Retrieved 24 October 2012.
- ^ a b c The Suit Challenging the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping Can Proceed, Despite the State Secrets Privilege
- The Suit Challenging the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping Can Proceed, Despite the State Secrets Privilege: Why The Judge Made the Right Call Archived 2006-10-19 at the Wayback Machine By JULIE HILDEN, FindLaw, August 15, 2006
- Examining Two Recent Rulings Allowing Suits Against the NSA's Warrantless Wiretapping To Proceed, Despite the State Secrets Privilege: Part Two in a Series Archived 2006-10-19 at the Wayback Machine By JULIE HILDEN, FindLaw, August 23, 2006
- ^ United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S., paragraph 8 (1953) ("The privilege against revealing military secrets, a privilege which is well established in the law of evidence").
- ^ JURIST, March 12, 2007
- ^ Susan Burgess (Summer 2006). "Cases without courts – The state secrets privilege keeps some claims from ever being heard". 30 (3). The News Media & The Law: 32. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-05-06.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ Tenet v. Doe, 544 U.S. 1 (2005)
- ^ a b c d e f g Lyons, Carrie Newton (2007). "The State Secrets Privilege: Expanding Its Scope Through Government Misuse" (PDF). 11 LEWIS & CLARK L. REV. 99. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
In this Article, the author examines the current use, or rather misuse, as she argues, of the State Secrets Privilege ... She argues that the privilege is (1) being used to completely dismiss cases without review on the merits, (2) expanding into the realm of the Totten privilege, (3) interfering with private constitutional and statutory rights, and (4) interfering with public rights
- ^ The Chicago Tribune. truthout. Archived from the originalon 13 May 2007. Retrieved 1 May 2007.
- ^ "Secrecy News 04/23/02". Archived from the original on 2015-04-08. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
"Because it is so powerful and can trample legitimate claims against the government, the state secrets privilege is not to be lightly invoked" (United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1, 7 (1953))
- ^ Stephens, Hampton. Supreme Court Filing claims Air Force, government fraud in 1953 case: Case could affect 'state secrets' privilege Archived 2015-04-09 at the Wayback Machine Inside the Air Force March 14, 2003. Retrieved May 3, 2007.
- ^ a b ACLU v. National Security Agency: Why the "State Secrets Privilege" Shouldn't Stop the Lawsuit Challenging Warrantless Telephone Surveillance of Americans Archived 2007-04-26 at the Wayback Machine By JOHN W. DEAN, FindLaw, June 16, 2006
- ^ a b Burgess, Susan (2005). "State Secrets, Closed Courtrooms". The News Media and the Law. 29 (4): 29. Archived from the original on 2013-12-03. Retrieved 2013-11-14.
- ^ Unclaimed Territory, April 29, 2006
- ^ Lichtblau, Eric (August 31, 2007). "U.S. Cites 'Secrets' Privilege as It Tries to Stop Suit on Banking Records". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved 2009-07-09.
- Village Voice. Archived from the originalon 24 October 2006. Retrieved 24 October 2006.
- ^ http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070213122925-44818.pdf House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2007] Archived 2007-04-25 at the Wayback Machine Testimony of William G. Weaver, J.D., Ph.D. Senior Advisor, National Security Whistleblowers Coalition and Associate Professor University of Texas at El Paso, Inst. for Policy and Econ. Development and Dept. of Political Science, February 13, 2007
- ^ Pallitto, Robert (8 December 2006). "Secrecy and Foreign Policy". Foreign Policy In Focus (FPIF). Archived from the original on 21 May 2007. Retrieved 6 May 2007.
- ^ Rechecking the Balance of Powers Archived 2007-06-02 at the Wayback Machine By Glenn Greenwald, In These Times, July 21, 2006
- ^ Snapshots of the U.S. under the Bush administration Archived 2006-10-23 at the Wayback Machine by Glenn Greenwald, Unclaimed Territory, May 23, 2006
- ^ "The State Secrets Privilege: Expanding Its Scope Through Government Misuse" by Carrie Newton Lyons, 11 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 99 (2007).
- ^ a b Report on Reforming the State Secrets Privilege, American Bar Association, 2007.
- ^ "State Your Secrets" by Lou Fisher. Legal Times, 2006.
- ^ "Introduction of the State Secrets Protection Act". Federation of American Scientists. 2008-01-22. Archived from the original on 2008-02-04. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
- ^ ""Examining The State Secrets Privilege: Protecting National Security While Preserving Accountability" | U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont". www.leahy.senate.gov. 13 February 2008. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
- ^ "Judge rules CIA committed fraud in court". NBC News.
- ^ "Blowing the whistle on bad science". 15 March 2002.
- ^ "Crater Corp. v Lucent Technologies" (PDF). US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. 7 September 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 December 2005. Retrieved 29 September 2022.
- ^ "NSA Lawsuit - Stop Illegal Surveillance". American Civil Liberties Union. Archived from the original on 1 June 2006. Retrieved 1 June 2006.
- ^ "Federal Court Strikes Down NSA Warrantless Surveillance Program". American Civil Liberties Union. 17 August 2006. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 14 November 2013.
- ^ McCullagh, Declan (28 April 2006). "U.S. trying to halt suit against NSA". CNET News. Archived from the original on 19 January 2013.
- ^ "Statement of Kevin S. Bankston, Senior Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation" (PDF). Oversight Hearing on Reform of the State Secrets Privilege by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. 2008-01-29. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2008-10-25. Retrieved 2008-02-08.
- ^ Hepting v. AT&T, U.S. District Court (U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California 3 June 2009).
- ^ Bazan, Elizabeth B. (7 July 2008). "The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: An Overview of Selected Issues" (PDF). Congressional Research Service. Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 4 April 2015.
- ^ "Day in Court Denied for Victim of CIA Kidnapping and Rendition, Khaled El-Masri". Archived from the original on 2006-05-26. Retrieved 2016-12-04.
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). The New York Times. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-08-06. Retrieved 2017-02-23.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Greenhouse, Linda (2007-10-10). "Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Torture Appeal". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-11-16. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
- ^ Jane Doe vs. CIA Archived 2016-03-06 at the Wayback Machine Jan. 4, 2007; USDJ Laura Taylor Swain
- ^ "Obama administration shuts down lawsuit to protect U.S. secrets on Iran". cnn.com. 2015-03-23. Archived from the original on 2015-03-31. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
- ^ "VICTOR RESTIS and ENTERPRISES SHIPPING AND TRADING S.A. v. AMERICAN COALITION AGAINST NUCLEAR IRAN, INC. a/k/a UNITED AGAINST NUCLEAR IRAN" (PDF). UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK. 2015-03-23. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2015-04-02. Retrieved 2015-03-29.
- ^ General Dynamics Corp. v. United States Archived 2016-03-12 at the Wayback Machine at SCOTUSblog
- ^ "Fazaga v. FBI". Harvard Law Review. 33: 1774. 2000.
- ^ "Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga". SCOTUSblog. Retrieved March 4, 2022.
External links
- In The Name Of National Security: Unchecked Presidential Power And The Reynolds Case, Louis Fisher. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2006, ISBN 0-7006-1464-8.
- State Secrets and the Limits of National Security Litigation School of Law
- Closing Our Courts Crying 'state secrets,' the administration seals the courts to avoid scrutiny Archived by Village Voice, June 9, 2006
- Selected Case Files Involving "State Secrets", Project on Government Secrecy, Federation of American Scientists