Search Results for: state secrets privilege

From defending detainees held at the US naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba—many of whom were subjected to secret detention and torture by US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officials—to confronting American politicians over drone strikes that killed civilians in Pakistan, Alka Pradhan has built her career challenging the legal framework created after former US President [...]

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Friday partially revived a suit alleging improper FBI surveillance of Muslim residents of Southern California. The case was heard on remand from the US Supreme Court and decided on the findings of the District Court. Yassir Fazaga and other plaintiffs had initially filed a putative [...]

A US federal judge ordered a retrial on Friday in a case involving allegations that Virginia-based military contractor CACI Premier Technology, Inc. (CACI) contributed to the abuse and torture of detainees at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison two decades ago. Judge Leonie Brinkema granted the plaintiffs’ motion for a new trial and denied CACI’s motion for [...]

The Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania Monday proposed a 13-point plan to close Guantánamo Bay prison. Co-chairs Claire Finkelstein and Harvey Rishikof complied a diverse analysis of the prison to create a proposal that is both comprehensive and nonpartisan. Among the report’s 13 recommendations are a proposal [...]

The US Supreme Court Thursday ruled in a unanimous opinion that a member of an elected body does not have a viable First Amendment claim arising from verbal censure. The case Houston Community College System v. Wilson involved David Wilson, a former elected trustee of the Houston Community College System. Shortly after being elected to [...]

The US Supreme Court Friday unanimously ruled in favor of the FBI in Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga, holding that the state secrets privilege used to block the disclosure of information that the government finds harmful to national security is not displaced by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The lawsuit was filed in [...]

The US Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a 7-2 decision that information related to torture at CIA “black sites” is protected under the state secrets privilege, which allows the government to bar the release of information when it would endanger national security. Between December 2003 and September 2004, respondent Zayn al-Abidin Muhammad Husayn (Zubaydah), a [...]

JURIST Deputy Features Editor Anne Bloomberg recently spoke with Elizabeth Goitein, director of the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, about the case FBI v. Fazaga, for which the Supreme Court held oral arguments last week. The following has been edited and condensed for clarity.  Anne Bloomberg (JURIST): Could you briefly explain [...]

The United States Supreme Court heard oral arguments Monday in Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Fazaga and Unicolors, Inc. v. H&M Hennese & Mauritz. While neither case is particularly high profile, both involve subtle interpretations of surveillance and copyright law, respectively. In Fazaga, the FBI is being sued for allegedly conducting improper surveillance on a set [...]

North Carolina has an important connection to the “state secrets” at the center of an October 6 US Supreme Court argument. In this case, Guantanamo prisoner Abu Zubaydah seeks testimony from two former CIA contractors, James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen, on torture he suffered at a secret CIA prison in Poland. The contractors’ evidence would [...]