The Supreme Court has crafted a “state secrets” exception to discovery rules, a notion that’s blatantly unconstitutional, particularly when the state secret concerns torture. From Andrew P. Napolitano at lewrockwell.com:
Last week, a bitterly divided Supreme Court dismissed a case brought by a detainee at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba against the Department of Justice because the government claimed the information sought in the case was a state secret, the revelation of which will impair national security.
The plaintiff in the case has already testified publicly at Gitmo about his torture by Polish intelligence agents in Poland at the request of their American counterparts, and he sought an acknowledgement by U.S. officials that the torture did take place.
The American psychologists who crafted and managed the torture wrote a book about it and have discussed it publicly. The European Court of Human Rights has found that the torture occurred as the detainee in Gitmo described. And Polish prosecutors have indicted the Polish intelligence agents for violating the human rights of this detainee.
Still, the government wants to keep secret its torture from nearly 20 years ago. Last week, the Supreme Court agreed.
STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC 