White House Invokes State Secrets

Just after the midnight deadline Friday night, the Obama administration filed a request for a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit over the government’s targeting of a U.S. citizen believed to be in Yemen, saying that the case would reveal state secrets. Federal authorities believe U.S.-born Anwar al-Aulaqi is leading a branch of al-Qaeda in Yemen, and has targeted him for killing. But civil liberties groups are suing the government on behalf of al-Aulaqi’s father, saying that targeting of al-Aulaqi outside a war zone is an extrajudicial execution order against a U.S. citizen. The Obama administration invoked the state-secrets argument as the last of four arguments for why the case ought to be thrown out. Last year the administration promised to set a higher bar when hiding details of national security policy, and Justice Department officials said they used the clause reluctantly. The Obama administration has used the state-secrets argument at least three other times since taking office—in cases of Bush-era warrantless wiretapping and the torture and rendition of CIA prisoners. But an anonymous senior Justice official said that the current administration is using the argument more narrowly than the Bush administration, which cited it dozens of times, often to “shut down inquiries into wrongdoing.”