Josh Heuer
Active Member
Anybody remember state secrets privilege?
Not something really brought up much, but the first example is an alarming example of abuse of power by government.
The gist of state secrets privilege is this:
The first instance of this happening was obviously an abuse of power though:
Not something really brought up much, but the first example is an alarming example of abuse of power by government.
The gist of state secrets privilege is this:
This is the way government agencies can avoid evidence in court; if it's classified, it can be hurtful to national security and therefore be left out.Application of the privilege results in exclusion of evidence from a legal casebased solely on affidavits submitted by the government stating that court proceedings might disclose sensitive information which might endanger national security.
The first instance of this happening was obviously an abuse of power though:
This was a pretty clear example of a conspiracy unfolding; the Air Force deliberately lied (claiming secret, damning evidence had to be left out) to avoid taking the blame for their own mistake.
United States v. Reynolds
Main article: United States v. Reynolds
In United States v. Reynolds (1953), the widows of three crew members of a B-29 Superfortress bomber that had crashed in 1948 sought accident reports on the crash, but were told the release such details would threaten national security by revealing the nature of the bomber's top-secret mission. The Supreme Court ruled that the executive branch could bar evidence from the court if it deemed that its release would impair national security. In 1996, the accident reports in question were declassified and released, and when discovered in 2000 were found to contain no secret information. They did, however, contain information about the poor condition of the aircraft itself, which would have been very compromising to the Air Force's case. Many legal experts have alleged government abuse of secrecy in this landmark case.[2][3][5][10][11]