More on State Secrets

Yesterday AG Holder indicated that the United States would not reverse Bush administration policy of trying to have lawsuits dismissed because they touched on state secrets. In the Jeppesen case, where plaintiffs have sued Jeppesen, the logistics company used by the CIA to handle transportation when the plaintiffs were allegedly rendered to a foreign country to be tortured, DOJ official Douglas Letter stated that the core of the case - "their allegation that Jeppesen is complicit in a clandestine foreign intelligence matter" - could not be examined in court without endangering national security.

The ACLU is understandably up in arms, accusing Obama of violating campaign promises to run a more transparent government. This does seem like a missed opportunity to shed light on the Bush administration extraordinary rendition and torture program. I'm willing to give the administration the benefit of the doubt, for now. The DoJ is a big department, and it may not make sense to have its lawyers change course before the entire policy has been reviewed. However, once they've had a chance to look this over, Obama should be held to his promises to run a more transparent government, and that means ending the Bush-era policy of blocking lawsuits through abuse of the state secrets privilege.