State secrets

“ All three members of the panel have reviewed the documents filed by the government under seal that arguably are protected by the privilege. The state secrets privilege operates as a bar to the admission of evidence to which the privilege attaches, and the plaintiff must proceed without the benefit of such evidence. ”

“ The state secrets privilege is an evidentiary rule developed to prevent the disclosure of information which may be detrimental to national security. There are two distinct lines of cases covering the privilege. In the first line of cases the doctrine is more of a rule of "non-justiciability because it deprives courts of their ability to hear suits against the Government based on covert espionage agreements." ”

“ It is undisputed that Plaintiffs' do not claim to be parties to a secret espionage relationship with Defendants. Accordingly, the court finds the Totten/Tenet rule is not applicable to the instant case. The state secrets privilege belongs exclusively to the Executive Branch and thus, it is appropriately invoked by the head of the Executive Branch agency with control over the secrets involved. ”

“ “It has been the one song of those who thirst after absolute power that the interest of the state requires that its affairs be conducted in secret.... But the more such arguments disguise themselves under the mask of public welfare the more oppressive is the slavery to which they will lead.... Better that right counsels be known to enemies, than that the evil secrets of tyrants should be concealed from the citizens. They who can treat secretly of the affairs of a nation have it absolutely under their authority; ”

“ Defendants argue that the state secrets privilege bars Plaintiffs' claims because Plaintiffs cannot establish standing or a prima facie case for any of their claims without the use of state secrets. Further, Defendants argue that they cannot defend this case without revealing state secrets. For the reasons articulated below, the court rejects Defendants' argument with respect to Plaintiffs' claims challenging the TSP. The court, however, agrees with Defendants with respect to Plaintiffs' data-mining claim and grants Defendants' motion for summary judgment on that claim. ”

“ Id. at 1. The court dismissed the plaintiff's claims, because they could not be fairly litigated without the disclosure of state secrets. [5] Id. at 6.
In Hepting v. AT & T Corp., 2006 WL 2038464, (E.D. Cal. June 20, 2006) , which is akin to our inquiry in the instant case, the plaintiffs brought suit, alleging that AT & T Corporation was collaborating with the NSA in a warrantless surveillance program, which illegally tracked the domestic and foreign communications and communication records of millions of Americans. Id. at 1. ”

“ There are many secret methods of procedure known only to the initiated, but there can be no doubt of the fact that justice has become so corrupt, in both this city and State, that its acts have lost that moral force which is so necessary to the national prosperity. ”

“ But you must not ask us to reveal these valuable secrets, to do what you would not do yourselves. The public and our law-makers do not want your secrets nor ours, and it would be a damage to them to have them. ”

“ And thus public opinion, operating through the jury and the only part of the government at that time through93 which it could operate, in effect annulled the bloody witch law, passed by false agents of the people, against common justice and in favor of the then ruling political interests and influences; or the old charter church and state aristocracy. And history rarely reveals to us a more bloody despotism. ”

“ If the government, under pretence of putting down a secret conspiracy, should violate your lawful, open, peaceable societies;—if you are to be told, you shall not calmly deliberate on the means of saving yourselves from the evils which surround you;—if a military force is to scatter you like some lawless rabble—then is the state of the country fallen and low indeed. ”

“ Each country is casting its net of espionage into the slimy bottom of the others, fishing for their secrets, the treacherous secrets brewing in the oozy depths of diplomacy. And what is their secret service but the nation's underground trade in kidnapping, murder and treachery and all the ugly crimes bred in the depth of rottenness? ”

“ To fraud, to force, or accident, all the governments we know have owed their births. To the philosophic mind, how new and awful an instance do the United States at present exhibit in the political world! They exhibit, sir, the first instance of a people, who, being dissatisfied with their government,—unattacked by foreign force, and undisturbed by domestic uneasiness,—coolly and deliberately resort to the virtue and good sense of their country, for a correction of their public errors. ”

“ I will take you to rooms where persons, under the name of 'secret societies,' privately meet to indulge in the most unnatural and beastly licentiousness. I will prove to you, by ocular demonstration, that in certain cities of the Union, not a letter passes through the post offices, that is not broken open and read, and then re-sealed by a peculiar process—by which means much [Pg 199] private information is gained by the police, and the most tremendous secrets often leak out, to the astonishment of the parties concerned. ”

“ We are rapidly entering the age of no privacy, where everyone is open to surveillance at all times; where there are no secrets from government. ”

“ My sole reason for mentioning the subject, therefore, is to add, that the indiscretion of some of the members of congress, and the number of officers returning from America, will always spread rumours, which it will be impossible to suppress. Truth cannot remain hidden but by being buried in a mass of false reports. Hence, caution is necessary in order to preserve our secrets from all the inconveniences to which they are subject in America, both from the form of the government and from the character of some of those at the head of affairs. I have the honour to be, with profound respect, &c. ”

“ The danger to be apprehended from the secret societies is that all the members are banded together by the most solemn oaths, and under the penalty of death, not to divulge one of its secrets, and to aid and assist its members under every circumstance; to bear no witness against them, whatever may be their crimes, to shield fugitives from the laws of the country, and lastly to carry out the orders of their chiefs, whatever may be the consequences. ”

“ Let me ask, Will the people intrust their dearest fights and liberties to the determination of one body of men, and those not chosen by them, and who are invested both with the sword and purse? They never will—they never can—to a conclave, transacting their business secret from the eye of the public. ”

“ Such transactions as relate to military operations or affairs of great consequence, the immediate promulgation of which might defeat the interests of the community, I would not wish to be published, till the end which required their secrecy should have been effected. But to cover with the veil of secrecy the common routine of business, is an abomination in the eyes of every intelligent man, and every friend to his country. ”

“ Persons having foreign attachments will be sent among us and insinuated into our councils, in order to be made instruments for their purposes. Every one knows the vast sums laid out in Europe for secret services. ”

“ They have formed plots to destroy property, they have entered into conspiracies against the neutrality of the Government, they have sought to pry into every confidential transaction of the Government in order to serve interests alien to our own. ”

“ And having no right to say that you have any principals, you are bound, on every just principle of law or reason, to confess that you are mere usurpers, making laws, and enforcing them, upon your own authority alone.
A secret ballot makes a secret government; and a secret government is nothing else than a government by conspiracy. And a government by conspiracy is the only government we now have. ”

“ The problem of security is real; and the Government need not be paralyzed in handling it. The security problem, however, relates only to those sensitive areas where secrets are or may be available, where critical policies are being formulated, or where sabotage can be committed. ”

“ Order No. 10501, Nov. 5, 1953, 18 Fed.Reg. 7049, 3 CFR (1949-1953 Comp.) , p. 979, § 1 (b) , 50 U.S.C.A. § 401 note.
Surely one does not have a constitutional right to have access to the Government's military secrets. ”

“ After a pause, he added: “You have the resources of an empire behind you—a well-organized police force, an army of spies, the telegraph system. These things, added to your own skill, should enable you to bring the miscreant to justice, and save the State secret from passing to our enemies.” ”

“ Understand that if you divulge that secret to the British Government, or if in any way it reaches their ears, you are a dead man. No human precautions and no human laws can possibly protect you. We shall know at once by the steps the British Government will take on receipt of the intelligence whether they have learnt the secret or not. ”

“ Now, these gentlemen bring forward a law to protect the United States Government, and they bring that forward as an evidence of conspiracy, as evidence of a fraud. Nothing could be more unfair, nothing on earth could show a greater want of character. ”

“ They further admit a belief that the degrees of criminality in the individuals who compose the conspiracy, are very different, as it appears to be a principle with the authors of this institution to cloak their real design under false colours. Can we desire a stronger proof of the warm attachment of the people to these measures, than that the leaders of a wicked conspiracy, such as that disclosed in the report, have been enabled by holding them forth as their ostensible objects, to organize a force so formidable, as almost to brave the strength of the established government? ”

“ They may carry on the most wicked and pernicious of schemes under the dark veil of secrecy. The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them. The most iniquitous plots may be carried on against their liberty and happiness. I am not an advocate for divulging indiscriminately all the operations of government, though the practice of our ancestors, in some degree, justifies it. ”

“ Unless the Congress changes the rule announced by the Court today, those intelligence agencies of our Government engaged in law enforcement may as well close up shop, for the Court has opened their files to the criminal and thus afforded him a Roman holiday for rummaging through confidential information as well as vital national secrets. ”

“ Classified by law as national secrets, required to maintain confidentiality or prohibited from provision to the public according to other laws, regulations, or orders. 2. Making available to the public or provision will obstruct the investigation, prosecution, or law enforcement of a crime, impair the fair trial of a criminal defendant, or injure other people's life, body, freedom or property. 3. The draft for internal use or other preparatory works before the government agency make a decision. ”

“ We recognise the need to get legislation right. Nevertheless, it is very clear that the Official Secrets Act regime is not fit for purpose and the longer this goes unrectified, the longer the Intelligence Community's hands are tied. ”

“ You hear a lot from pinks and phony progressives that the nation’s capital is a police state where no man is free to utter his thoughts. But most of the spying is done not for legitimate government sources, but is privately sponsored by politicians, office-holders or subversive and inimical interests. ”

“ With the European situation to lend strong emphasis to the suggestion of sinister tendencies and secret combinations, it cannot be thought extraordinary that here in America, where traditional opinions and institutions were as certainly being undermined, the conviction should take root that beneath all this commotion over foreign and domestic policies secret forces must be at work, perfecting organizations, promoting conspiracies, and ready at any hour to leap forth into the light to throttle government and order. ”

“ If there should be such a conspiracy, is not this more justly to be deemed an act of the states through their own agents, and by their own choice, rather than a corrupt usurpation by the general government?
§ 511. Besides; the perpetual organization of the state governments, in all their departments, executive, legislative, and judicial; their natural tendency to co-operation in cases of threatened danger to their common liberties ”

“ For reasons not always evident to the outside observer, the assumption has become prevalent that the normal operations of the United States Government should be kept confidential, secret, or even top secret. Often it would seem that the attempt to maintain secrecy in non-sensitive functions is not worth the security effort at all or, contrariwise, may even reassure the antagonists of the United States by not letting them realize how serious and how unfriendly our plans or policies with respect to them may be. ”

“ Besides, the learned tell us, that ministers of state make an excellent plea of their not betraying their intelligence, against all party inquiries into the great sums of money pretended to be paid for secret service; and whether the secret service was to bribe people to betray things abroad or at home; whether the money was paid to some body or to no body, employ’d to establish correspondences abroad, or to establish families and amass treasure at home ”