Snip from Ryan Singel's report at Wired News Threat Level blog:
On Wednesday, secret documents that purportedly chronicle parts of the governments' secret warrantless spying on Americans' communications will collide with the government's most powerful legal tool — the state secrets privilege — whose invocation virtually forces judges to disappear lawsuits into the memory hole once the government says a lawsuit involves national security.
At stake in the battle in the 9th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court is whether the U.S. court system has the power to review the government's wiretapping of Americans if that surveillance is conducted in the name of the so-called "War on Terror." The government is asking the court to dismiss two lawsuits aimed at shutting down warrantless surveillance and data-mining of Americans' calls and emails, despite the two cases having evidence that seems to back up the claims of illegal surveillance. Bush Administration lawyers say the courts have no business second-guessing the President when it comes to national security.
While the Administration has already been able to quash an ACLU challenge to its post 9/11 secret spying by arguing that no one could actually prove they were spied on, the pending hearing brings together the two cases that experts say have the best chance of overcoming that test and forcing a showdown over the legal merits of the controversial spy program.
Link.
