Obama Administration Handed Another Defeat In Another 'State Secrets' Case

[florida08]

April 28, 2009 4:19 PM
ABC News

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Tuesday rejected the Obama administration's claim that a lawsuit involving extraordinary rendition must be halted for national security reasons, and reversed a lower court dismissal of the lawsuit.

As we reported in February, the case involves five men who claim to have been victims of extraordinary rendition who sued a San Jose Boeing subsidiary, Jeppesen Dataplan, accusing the flight-planning company of aiding the CIA in flying them to other countries and secret CIA camps where they were tortured.

The court found that United States v Reynolds -- the "state secrets" precedent the Obama administration had been relying on to block the lawsuit -- "recognizes that the Executive’s national security prerogatives are not the only weighty constitutional values at stake: while 'security depends upon a sophisticated intelligence apparatus,' it 'subsists, too, in fidelity to freedom’s first principles freedom from arbitrary and unlawful restraint and the personal liberty that is secured by adherence to the separation of powers.'"........

The Obama administration did not immediately have a comment. But two months ago, Justice Department spokesman Matt Miller said of the case, "It is the policy of this administration to invoke the state secrets privilege only when necessary and in the most appropriate cases, consistent with the United States Supreme Court's decision in Reynolds that the privilege not 'be lightly invoked.'"

Miller said that Attorney General Eric Holder has started a review of all state secret privilege matters......

Russ Feingold, D-Wis., who earlier today said that the Obama administration "seems reminiscent" of the Bush administration in its invocation of state secrets, has reacted to the 9th Circuit's decision by calling it "the latest example of courts being skeptical of the government’s argument that entire cases should be dismissed based on the assertion of the state secrets privilege without any evidence being considered."

The Obama administration has been invoking the "state secrets" argument in quite a few court cases, among them Jewel v. NSA, where the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is challenging the NSA surveillance by suing on behalf of AT&T customers whose records may or may not have been caught up in the NSA "dragnet" and Al-Haramain v. Obama, in which the leaders of a now-defunct Islamic charity, allege that the National Security Agency under President Bush engaged in illegal warrantless wiretapping

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/04/obama-adminis-4.html

[icnorth]

1. A question that keeps popping up in my mind...

Is Obama setting up these Buch/Cheney strawmen so the judiciary can shoot them down?

[florida08]

2. have wondered that too

and hope that is the case. Allowing the law to finally do it's job would certainly be a change we can believe in. Time will tell.:thumbsup:

[wolfgirl]

3. I've been thinking along

those lines as well. If Obama & his DOJ had just pulled or dropped these cases, then it would be considered a partisan action. But, by going forth with the cases, the losses set a precedent for future instances.

Obama may look to be 'losing' the battles, but actually he's winning the war.

[havocmom]

8. Sorta what I figure too. Seems he is fine with playing devil's advocate to get decisions

We know he is doing some serious chess moves to get people working on democracy again, instead of sitting at home whining that 'somebody should do something!' Only way for democracy to work is for the people to figure out 'somebody' is us.

bush/cheney did everything they could to squelch other governmental agencies and branches, setting up the Unitary Executive dictatorship of cheney's wet dreams. Obama HAS to get the branches and agencies doing their proper work again, along with getting Americans to step up to the plate and participate actively in making sure their elected representatives actually represent THEM.

It is the wise man who knows when to play the fool to advance his case. Obama is a wise man.

[alcibiades_mystery]

4. Ahem

[florida08]

5. pffffffttttt

[alcibiades_mystery]

6. Blerg

[HopeOverFear]

10. What does that mean?

[MasonJar]

7. Why does any Obama administration decision, no matter how faulty,

always get excused? I think Obama is doing many really good things, but he is also making some bad choices and should be called on them.

[alcibiades_mystery]

11. because we're all Obama Zombies...JOIN US...JOIN US...JOIN US...

We're MINDLESS!

And BULLIES!

MINDLESS BULLIES!!!! JOIN US!!! Or face the mighty wrath of being accused of "poutrage." Poutrage, I say! Mwahahahahaha...

[windbreeze]

9. I can accept what you guys are saying, because....

It seems to me, that Obama does NOT accomplish things in the same manner as others would..While some go directly at a problem, and only see one way to handle it, he seems to face challenges in an indirect, yet very direct way, and in a manner that no one else would think to use...He's been doing things like this all along....so let's hope that he only appears to be losing battles, while he is actually winning the war.....he is a brilliant constitutional lawyer...and he knows what his end goal is...while we may not....wb

[florida08]

12. I don't follow Obama blindly and think many don't

but am willing to give him the benefit until otherwise noted. It's why I posted the article. I think we should point out any evidence of him side stepping what he campaigned on. But since we can't talk with him personally to find out his intentions we have to draw from what we read.

I do think it's viable to suggest, with all that's on his plate at the moment, that he is letting the law as it should handle certain issues when it comes to the past administration. If he were to pursue them relentlessly how long would it be before the public began to question him when we have an economy that's headed south and an occupation still in Iraq. Throw in the swine flu scare now and what do you think is first in the minds of country that is moderate.

I know what it looks like and even if he was advised to invoke that strategy the law has stated otherwise. That's a good thing. Something sorely lacking under the Bush regime.

[Uzybone]

13. good

[AtomicKitten]

14. Good! There is method to their madness but it does gives detractors something to chew on. n/t

[FrenchieCat]

15. Let them chew! If it wasn't this, it would be something else.

The bottomline is the end result, and getting there through court proceedings and findings is the best avenue.

[florida08]

16. there ya go

sometimes I think we got so familiar with the authoritarian hierarchical government of the Bush squad that we've forgotten what a democracy looks like. Or maybe just thinking a 'good' dictator is what we want lol.

[mvd]

17. K&R

I wouldn't put it past Obama that this was the plan all along. I have to take it at face value for now, but you never know.