Supreme Court hands another one to BushCo

And you are so effing surprised.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 12 — In a significant victory for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court declined today to review the government's refusal to release information about foreigners held after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The justices let stand a ruling by a federal appeals court, which concluded last June that the Justice Department was within its rights when it refused to release the names of more than 700 people, most of them Arabs or Muslims, arrested for immigration violations in connection with the attacks.

...With today's refusal by the justices, the last word in the case apparently belongs to Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. In his opinion for the 2-to-1 majority on June 17, he noted that courts had always shown deference to executive branch officials in the field of national security.

"The need for deference in this case is just as strong as in earlier cases," Judge Sentelle wrote in the opinion that was joined by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson. "America faces an enemy just as real as its former cold war foes."

Judge David S. Tatel offered a blistering dissent last June. "By accepting the government's vague, poorly explained allegations, and by filling in the gaps in the government's case with its own assumptions about facts absent from the record, this court has converted deference into acquiescence," he asserted.

The case revolved around an effort by several civil liberties groups that had asserted the Freedom of Information Act required the Justice Department to disclose the names of those detained on immigration charges. The government argued that it was entitled to an exception in the law, and that disclosing too much would give Al Qaeda terrorists a window into law enforcement.  article

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.