Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program

SECRECY IS AT ISSUE IN SUITS OPPOSING SPY PROGRAM
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Adam Liptak]
The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency’s highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges’ clerks cannot see its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies. Judges have even been instructed to use computers provided by the Justice Department to compose their decisions. But now the procedures have started to meet resistance. At a private meeting with the lawyers in one of the cases this month, the judges who will hear the first appeal next week expressed uneasiness about the procedures. Lawyers suing the government and some legal scholars say the procedures threaten the separation of powers, the adversary system and the lawyer-client privilege. Justice Department officials say the circumstances of the cases, involving a highly classified program, require extraordinary measures. The officials say they have used similar procedures in other cases involving classified materials.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/washington/26nsa.html?ref=todayspaper
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* Dismissal of Lawsuit Against Warrantless Wiretaps Sought
A lawsuit challenging the legality of the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program should be thrown out because the government is now conducting the wiretaps under the authority of a secret intelligence court, according to court papers filed by the Justice Department yesterday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25/AR2007012501434.html
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