No one really expected a progressive President of the U.S., no more than we would expect a fish to drive a car. It just isn’t in the nature of the Presidency. But, in a story grossly under-reported in the mainstream press, Obama’s Department of Justice moved to the right of Bush on the issue of ‘state secrets’. The Obama team did not come in and reject Bush’s arguments for executive secrecy and power but pushed them along. Interesting that Obama can close Guantanamo, release some “torture memos” at the same time as his adminstration tries to put itself above the law. And that is what it is about, if you can’t be sued or held to account for your actions, you are attempting to be above the law.
Yesterday the 9th Circuit Court smacked them back. The ACLU reported that
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed a lower court dismissal of the lawsuit, brought on behalf of five men who were kidnapped, forcibly disappeared and secretly transferred to U.S.-run prisons or foreign intelligence agencies overseas where they were interrogated under torture. The government had intervened, improperly asserting the “state secrets” privilege to have the case thrown out. Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled, as the ACLU has argued, that the government must invoke the state secrets privilege with respect to specific evidence, not to dismiss the entire suit.”
In other words, the President can’t just do what he wants. U.S. Constitutional lawyer and Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald pointed out that
“Today’s decision is a major defeat for the Obama DOJ’s efforts to preserve for itself the radically expanded secrecy powers invented by the Bush DOJ to shield itself from all judicial scrutiny. . . . Finally, these 5 torture victims will have their day in court.”
I highly recommend Greenwald’s coverage of this story, one that should send alarms to anyone concerned about growing U.S. executive power.
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