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The limits of 'state secrets'
Four and half years after the Bush administration was caught eavesdropping on Americans without court approval, a federal judge in San Francisco has ratified a conclusion many Americans reached long ago: that the administration exceeded its legal authority in the war on terror. But U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker's ruling does more than that. It also reminds the Obama administration, which too often has echoed Bush-era positions on national security issues, that the "state secrets privilege" can cover a multitude of abuses.
The issue before Walker was whether the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation and two of its lawyers, both U.S. citizens, could recover damages for electronic surveillance conducted without the warrant required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. Walker ruled for the plaintiffs, despite roadblocks erected by the government.