Secret trials, secret courts

Behind the Homefront has a post about disturbing trial secrecy in the government's pursuit of terrorists.

2004-01-06 JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES SECRET SUPREME COURT BRIEF
Continuing the pattern of secrecy that prompted 23 media and public interest groups to file a motion to intervene in the U.S. Supreme Court case M.K.B. v. Warden, the government yesterday filed its brief opposing review entirely under seal. The only public part of the government's filing was a two-sentence motion from Solicitor General Theodore Olsen asserting that the case "pertains to information that is required to be kept under seal." Stories by the Associated Press and CNN describe the extraordinary nature of Olsen's request. The case involves Mohamed K. Bellahouel's challenge to his post-Sept. 11 detention.

The Progress Report puts it this way:

The Bush Administration is still attempting to practice the policy of Don't Ask, Don't Tell when it comes to civil liberties. The WP reports, "In an extraordinary request, the Bush administration asked the Supreme Court on Monday to let it keep its arguments secret in a case involving an immigrant's challenge of his treatment after the Sept. 11 terror attacks." Ironically, the case at hand deals with whether the government kept the jailing and subsequent court fight of Mohamed Kamel Bellahouel secret in the first place. "Solicitor General Theodore Olson told justices in a one-paragraph filing that 'this matter pertains to information that is required to be kept under seal.'" While "Justices sometimes are asked to keep parts of cases private because of information sensitive for national security or other reasons," it is "unusual for an entire filing to be kept secret."

Unusual, perhaps, but there are at least two completely invisible cases on the secret docket of the Southern District of Florida.

Federal Court in Florida Hides Cases From Public

Star Chamber

There are no gavels, bailiffs or benches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Its classified work takes place in a vault-like secure room at the Department of Justice.

It has even been known to meet in a judge's living room. In the middle of the night.

Obscure and mysterious, this rotating panel of judges approves the government's top-secret requests to eavesdrop on suspected spies or terrorists in the United States.
  article with list of judges