Ethics

Obama Appeals Jeppesen Dataplan Ruling

By Ed Brayton

On the state secrets privilege, the Obama administration has now gone from bad to worse. They are appealing the ruling in the Jeppesen Dataplan case to the full 9th circuit, seeking an en banc rehearing that would overturn the decision to reject the state secrets privilege and allow the case to move forward. You can see their brief asking for the appeal here.

This is the case brought by five former detainees who were taken as part of the Bush administration's extraordinary rendition program to other countries to be tortured (in this case, Morocco and Pakistan). The case is against a Boeing subsidiary that supplied the planes, not against the government. But both the Bush and Obama administrations have argued that the case must be dismissed because of the state secrets privilege.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on June 15, 2009 (boomark / email).