(no subject)
"The State Secrets Privilege is a series of American legal precedents allowing the federal government the ability to dismiss legal cases that it claims would threaten foreign policy, military intelligence or national security.
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, it has been invoked several times to stay proceedings.
According to an unnamed study, it has been invoked 60 times since it was originally founded in the 1950s during the Cold War, and it was only denied by a judge on five occasions, causing its critics to claim that it is rarely challenged and represents a "free pass" for the federal government.
The privilege was first recognized by the Supreme Court in a 1953 decision, United States v. Reynolds (345 U.S. 1).
After the privilege is properly invoked, the privileged material is completely removed from the litigation, and the court must determine how the unavailability of the privileged information affects the case.
In 2001, George W. Bush created a controversy by extending the accessibility of the State Secrets Privilege to allow former Presidents, their designated representatives, or representatives designated by their families, to invoke it to bar records from their tenure, through Executive Order 13233."
For more, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Secrets_Privilege
Presently, Bush is going through the motions to use this privilege to block the publication of documents that suggest AT&T and NSA have been illegally monitoring US citizens with wire taps.
WOO YEAH!
...
Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, it has been invoked several times to stay proceedings.
According to an unnamed study, it has been invoked 60 times since it was originally founded in the 1950s during the Cold War, and it was only denied by a judge on five occasions, causing its critics to claim that it is rarely challenged and represents a "free pass" for the federal government.
The privilege was first recognized by the Supreme Court in a 1953 decision, United States v. Reynolds (345 U.S. 1).
After the privilege is properly invoked, the privileged material is completely removed from the litigation, and the court must determine how the unavailability of the privileged information affects the case.
In 2001, George W. Bush created a controversy by extending the accessibility of the State Secrets Privilege to allow former Presidents, their designated representatives, or representatives designated by their families, to invoke it to bar records from their tenure, through Executive Order 13233."
For more, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Secrets_Privilege
Presently, Bush is going through the motions to use this privilege to block the publication of documents that suggest AT&T and NSA have been illegally monitoring US citizens with wire taps.
WOO YEAH!
...