State Secrets Protection Act Passes House Subcommittee on Constitution Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
by Suraj Sazawal, 6/15/2009
After hearing testimony on why the application of the executive state secret privilege needs to curtailed, a House subcommittee passed the State Secret Protection Act, but limited some appeals, and sent it to the Judiciary Committee for further consideration. Debate over a similar bill in the Senate has been repeatedly postponed.
On June 4, 2009, the House Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties approved the bill (H.R 984), sending it to the full House Judiciary Committee for consideration. “In order for the rule of law to have any meaning, individual liberties and rights must be enforceable in our courts,” said Jerrold Nadler, (D-NY), the subcommittee chairman. “The government simply cannot be allowed to hide behind unexamined claims of secrecy.”
Speaking at the same hearing, Ben Wizner, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said the state secret privilege has evolved from a means of protecting national security interest into "an alternative form of immunity that is increasingly being used to shield the government and its agents from accountability for systemic violations of the Constitution."
HR 984 restores judicial oversight by directing the White House to submit the information it deems a state secret to a federal judge who would conduct an independent review of the material. The second reform would prevent the outright dismissal of an entire lawsuit without an independent review of the evidence deemed privileged.