In Critical NSA Case, Government Still Rests On State Secrets Claim

Late Friday, the federal government signaled its intention to keep fighting for its right to prevent a judge from requiring that plaintiffs attorneys in Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, Inc., et al. v. Obama, et al.case be given access to classified information. On April 17, Judge Vaughn Walker ordered the attorneys for the Al-Haramain charity and the government to design a mechanism for protecting classified information. (Background here: the government investigated whether the charity was a conduit for terrorist financing; inadvertently, the charity's lawyers received documents suggesting that the charity's phones had been tapped by the NSA; the charity is suing the government.) ....