State Secrets Privilege Misused From the Start
Has the government’s state secrets privilege been misused from the start? According to the New York Times, it would appear that the Supreme Court was misled, which caused them to basically define the terms under which the privilege can be used.
[D]ocuments from the 1953 case that defined the modern privilege, United States v. Reynolds, have been declassified in recent years and suggest that Air Force officials misled the court.
An accident report on a B-29 bomber crash in 1948 was withheld because the Air Force said it included technical details about sensitive intelligence equipment and missions, but it turned out to contain no such information, said Wilson M. Brown III, a lawyer in Philadelphia who represented survivors of those who died in the crash in recent litigation.
“The facts the Supreme Court was relying on in Reynolds were false,” Mr. Brown said in an interview. “It shows that if the government is not truthful, plaintiffs will lose and there’s very little chance to straighten it out.”
This is a very compelling read, especially when thought of in the context of the NSA eavesdropping case currently being heard. Makes you really wonder what the government is attempting to hide.