Bravo for the Rule of Law

Dear Friends,
I want to thank Judge Vaughn R. Walker for his recent decision that the illegal wiretaps done by the Bush Administration were in fact illegal and that there are limits on the state-secrets privilege.  You can read more about the decision in The New York Times article here.

Unfortunately, the Obama Administration Justice Department was taking the same position as the Bush Administration did in this case in support of an unfettered state-secrets privilege.  The Obama Administration claims to have a more restricted view of the state-secrets privilege.  The New York Times article states:

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Tracy Schmaler, noted that the Obama administration had overhauled the department’s procedures for invoking the state-secrets privilege, requiring senior officials to personally approve any assertion before lawyers could make it in court. She said that approach would ensure that the privilege was invoked only when “absolutely necessary to protect national security.”

I am not convinced that the Obama Administration is willing to back off a claim that the Executive Branch has the right to claim the state-secrets privilege without judicial review.  The New York Times article contains the following very disappointing fact,

The Justice Department said it was reviewing the decision and had made no decision about whether to appeal.

There is no reason that the Executive Branch should be able to claim the state-secrets privilege without judicial review.  I hope that the Obama Justice Department decides not to appeal the case.  We will see.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal