Narrowing the state secrets privilege
President Obama’s support for narrowing the state secrets privilege lends momentum to legislation now pending in the House and Senate.
Obama’s Justice Department has already used the legal defense three times to shield evidence in lawsuits challenging Bush administration counterterrorism policies.
“I actually think that the state secrets doctrine should be modified,” Obama said at his Wednesday night White House press conference. “I think right now it’s overbroad.”
Obama said Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and White House counsel Gregory B. Craig are working on the issue. Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J. Leahy , D-Vt., has introduced a bill to circumscribe the privilege.
The Justice Department has invoked the privilege three times since Obama took office, in lawsuits against the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program and its practice of “rendition” in which suspected terrorists were shipped to other countries, allegedly to be tortured…
