The reauthorization of the PATRIOT Act focused a lot of attention on the fact that the Administration is interpreting the phrase “relevant to an authorized [intelligence] investigation” in Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act very broadly. As Ron Wyden and Mark Udall made clear, the government claims that phrase gives it the authority to collect [...]

Royce Lamberth appears to be having a split the baby moment in the Richard Horn suit. As you recall, back in the Clinton era, a DEA official sued the government for illegal spying on him. He alleged that State and CIA conspired to thwart his efforts to cooperate with the Burmese government on drug eradication [...]

In what can only be described as a curious filing, the US Government, through the DOJ has submitted a pleading to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the previously terminated appeal originally filed in 2006. The filing seeks to correct false statements previously made by the government in claiming state secrets dismissal of the al-Haramain case.

The state secrets doctrine was born on the wings of fraud and lies by the US government in the case of US v. Reynolds in 1953. As Congress struggles to rein in the unbridled use of the doctrine to cover up illegality by the Executive Branch (see here, here and here), it is a good [...]

The government has agreed to pay Richard Horn–who was illegally wiretapped when working as a DEA agent in Burma–$3 million to settle his suit.

The Obama Administration appears to have issued its “new” state secrets policy in an effort to pre-empt both legislation and court rulings implementing a CIPA-like process in state secrets.

Royce Lamberth and Vaughn Walker must have been golfing together recently. Because their rulings on governmental secrecy sound totally alike.

Royce Lamberth really smacked down Leon Panetta’s declaration in the Horn v. Huddle case. That probably going to make it a lot easier for other plaintiffs to question his good faith going forward.

There is a new case causing a stir on the state secrets front today. The case is Horn v. Huddle et. al, is filed in the DC District, and has been quietly going on behind the scenes since 1994. From Del Wilber at the Washington Post:A federal judge has ruled that government officials committed fraud while defending a lawsuit brought by a former DEA agent who accused a CIA operative

It looks like none of the parties involved are much interested in Attorney General Mukasey’s call for new legislation on the Gitmo detainees. Good.