Last Friday, the House Judiciary Committee, by a vote of 18-12, approved a bill entitled The State Secret Protection Act of 2009, which, if enacted, would be the first law ever to regulate and limit the President's ability to use the "state secrets privilege" to compel the dismissal of lawsuits that allege lawbreaking by executive branch officials. The bill was first introduced in 2007 in response to the Bush administration's radical abuse and expansion of the privilege, and was re-introduced earlier this year in response to the Obama administration's identical abuses.[...]
NADLER: [The Bush Administration] invented the use of saying, you can't have a lawsuit [...] the very consideration of the lawsuit, the very consideration of the case, will endanger state secrets.
[...]
GREENWALD: the [And you’re saying the] Obama administration has been using this privilege in exactly the same way, meaning in this way that's reinvented, by saying not just these specific documents are subject to the state secrets privilege, but the subject matter itself is.
[...]
NADLER: One of the basic problems is that I have to think that the administration is not going to support the bill, and it's going to be very difficult to pass it.
[...]
If nothing else, it's refreshing to see Democratic members of the House fulfilling their duty to act independently of the executive branch and try to impose limits to curb presidential abuses of power, even when the President is a member of their political party.
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