Showdown Looming On 'State Secrets' - Judge Threatens To Penalize U.S. In Wiretap Case

[ProSense]

Showdown Looming On 'State Secrets'

Judge Threatens To Penalize U.S. In Wiretap Case

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Write
Tuesday, May 26, 2009

President Obama vowed last week to rein in the use of a legal privilege that allows the administration to discard lawsuits that involve "state secrets," promising that a new policy is in the works that will quell criticism by civil libertarians.

But hours after Obama's speech laid out a "delicate balance" on national security, his Justice Department was criticized by a federal judge in California overseeing a case that has delved deeper than any other into one of the government's most highly classified data-gathering programs.

The Obama administration has invoked the state-secrets privilege in resisting a lawsuit filed by an Oregon charity whose attorneys may have been subjected to warrantless wiretapping. Late Friday, Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker issued a terse order that raised the prospect of "sanctions" for government lawyers who have not responded to his order for a plan for how the case should proceed. The sanctions may include awarding monetary damages to the charity, the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation.

The document amounts to "Judge Walker's enough-is-enough order," said Jon Eisenberg, an attorney for the now-defunct charity.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on the judge's order, which requires the government to respond in court by Friday.

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[Vincardog]

1. If Obama is going to keep saying 'Force me' to do the right thing I a glad Judge Walker is ready to

[ProSense]

2. This needs more exposure. n/t