Justices Refuse to Review Case on Secrecy and 9/11 Detentions

The case that the justices declined today to review, Center for National Security Studies v. Justice Department, 03-472, pitted two fundamental values against each other — the right of the public to know details of how its government operates versus the government’s need to keep some information secret to protect national security.

With today’s refusal by the justices, the last word in the case apparently belongs to Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In his opinion for the 2-to-1 majority on June 17, he noted that courts had always shown deference to executive branch officials in the field of national security.

“The need for deference in this case is just as strong as in earlier cases,” Judge Sentelle wrote in the opinion that was joined by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson and reversed a lower court finding. “America faces an enemy just as real as its former cold war foes.”

Judge David S. Tatel offered a blistering dissent last June. “By accepting the government’s vague, poorly explained allegations, and by filling in the gaps in the government’s case with its own assumptions about facts absent from the record, this court has converted deference into acquiescence,” he asserted.

Notice a court stacked with Republicans said we should trust the President and the Supreme Court, which appointed this President, agrees. Checks and balances? mjh

Judges
* Judge Sentelle was appointed United States Circuit Judge in October 1987. [by Reagan]
* Judge Henderson was appointed United States Circuit Judge in July 1990. [by Bush’s dad]
* Judge Tatel was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals in October 1994. [by Clinton]