In case you missed it: on March 15, attorneys for the Miami Herald’s Carol Rosenberg filed this FOIA action against the Department of Defense (h/t Legal Times). Rosenberg’s complaint begins as follows:
1. This is an action under the
Pretty big decision by the D.C. Circuit this morning, reversing the district court’s dismissal of the ACLU’s drone-related FOIA suit against the CIA on the ground that the Agency’s “Glomar response” was not justified. (Jack previewed and … Read more »
Here are two new studies coming from the Congressional Research Service (h/t Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy News) that may be of interest to Lawfare readers. They focus on access to government information and criminal prohibitions on leaking classified defense … Read more »
As readers probably already know, the Senate ended an otherwise largely legislation-light 2012 by approving a controversial five-year extension of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA), which the House had previously passed in September. President Obama signed the reauthorization … Read more »
As Raffaela posted earlier, the government has won a substantial victory in the FOIA litigation in which the Times and the ACLU sought disclosure of information about CIA drone strikes, including the legal justification underlying the use of lethal … Read more »
Judge Colleen McMahon of the District Court of the Southern District of New York has granted summary judgment to the government in the consolidated FOIA cases brought by the New York Times and the ACLU. The plaintiffs were seeking information … Read more »
Here’s your three-part read-out from yesterday’s argument in ACLU v. CIA, or the FOIA action seeking CIA documents about drones.
By way of summary, a three judge panel of the D.C. Circuit, comprised of judges Merrick Garland, David Tatel, and … Read more »
Today the D.C. Circuit will hear oral argument concerning the ACLU’s FOIA request to the CIA for records related to the government’s program of targeted killing via “drones.” Cutting through the statutory and doctrinal niceties, the main issue is whether … Read more »
Earlier this week, Judge Rosemary Collyer rejected a proposed modification to protective orders entered in Mohammed al Qahtani’s habeas case. Al Qahtani’s lawyers had asked the judge to change the orders, so as to permit them to file a classified … Read more »
A new filing yesterday, in parallel FOIA actions regarding the targeted killing program: the government’s “Combined Opposition to Plaintiffs’ Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment and Reply in Further Support of Government’s Motion for Summary Judgment.”
Before the Southern District of New … Read more »
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit (Judges Tatel, Garland and Griffith) has rejected the CIA’s motion to remand in ACLU v. CIA, the FOIA action regarding the Obama Administration’s targeted killing program. The appeal thus will be argued on … Read more »
From the Blog of the Legal Times, we learn that the ACLU has filed its opposition to the CIA’s motion to remand, in the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) appeal now awaiting oral argument before the D.C. Circuit.
In … Read more »
Jack and Ben earlier noted the government’s long-awaited brief in support of its motion for summary judgment in New York Times Co. v. Department of Justice and ACLU v. Department of Justice, the consolidated FOIA actions now pending in the … Read more »
Like Jack, I am a little surprised by the government’s brief–filed late last night–in the ACLU/New York Times FOIA case on targeted killings. This was the brief, remember, for which the government received an extension after informing … Read more »
Here is the Government’s brief in support of its summary judgment motion in response to requests by the NYT and ACLU for records on targeted killings, especially with regard to U.S. citizens. This is the brief for which the USG … Read more »
The ACLU has filed its reply brief in the D.C. Circuit in its FOIA case against the government, which seeks information about CIA use of drones for targeted killing. I have discussed this case briefly here and here (the ACLU … Read more »
Excellent discussion of drone strikes on today’s Diane Rehm Show–which, unfortunately, is not embeddable. (Memo to the Diane Rehm Show: Make your episodes embedable!)
Guests include:
Scott ShaneReporter, The New York TimesJohn BellingerPartner, Arnold &
Both the NYT Becker-Shane “Kill List” story and the Klaidman book excerpt have implications for the pending ACLU FOIA suit in CADC, which seeks CIA records on CIA drone strikes. (It also has implications for the broader ACLU FOIA case … Read more »
Back in March, we shared the appellant’s brief in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals case of American Civil Liberties Union v. CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency has filed its respondent brief in that case. The CIA summarizes its … Read more »
A three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed a District Court judgment in favor of the National Security Agency in a case brought by the Electronic Privacy Information Center under the Freedom of Information Act. The … Read more »
In connection with my post this morning on the Brennan speech and the ACLU FOIA litigation, Jameel Jaffer – who heads up the ACLU’s National Security Project – had this op-ed on the FOIA litigation (with Nathan Wessler) on Monday … Read more »
Very glad to have joined the Lawfare team. I look forward to more sustained blogging once the spring grading season is over. For now, I’ll offer just a quick thought on the speech John Brennan delivered yesterday, and on the … Read more »
Peter Margulies responds to Jameel Jaffer’s response:
I appreciate Jameel’s response to my earlier post, as I appreciate the work that he and the ACLU have done in promoting transparency. However, Jameel’s response largely reinforces my argument. First, Jameel
The ACLU’s Jameel Jaffer responds to Peter Margulies’ post yesterday on “moving the goal posts”:
Peter is mistaken. We filed that suit because we thought the photos would help the public understand what had happened in the detention centers. We
Peter Margulies writes in with this response to my request for examples of NGOs moving the goalposts in their demands about counterterrorism legal policy.
Administration critics “moved the goal posts” in responding to the Obama administration’s successful efforts to prevent
Peter Margulies of Roger Williams School of Law has this article on proposed amendments to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). It opens:
The Obama administration asked Congress to amend the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) last week to respond
In earlier posts I’ve written generally about the information sharing provisions of the Lieberman-Collins cybersecurity bill and the McCain bill. Today I want to begin drilling down in comparing the two bills on a more detailed basis. I’ve chosen … Read more »
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed its opening brief in its appeal of the District Court of the District of Columbia’s granting of a motion for summary judgment for the Central Intelligence Agency. The case stems from a FOIA … Read more »
Tomorrow the Senate Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing on the relationship between the Freedom of Information Act, and the protection of critical infrastructure. One aspect of the hearing will be the proposal (contained in the Lieberman-Collins bill and … Read more »
The New York Times and columnists Charlie Savage and Scott Shane have filed suit under the Freedom of Information Act against the Department of Justice for access to the OLC memo authorizing the targeted killing of Anwar Al-Aulaqi.
Read the … Read more »
Some things are just too ridiculous to be anything other than true. From Steve Aftergood over at Secrecy News:
Open Source Works, which is the CIA’s in-house open source analysis component, is devoted to intelligence analysis of unclassified, open
Charlie Savage of the New York Times has filed this FOIA suit in an effort to acquire a classified report issued by DOJ and ODNI to Congress “pertaining to intelligence collection authorities” under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act … Read more »
The other day, Bobby posted a link to the the Second Circuit’s recent decision in Amnesty International v. Clapper, a case holding that plaintiffs challenging the constitutionality of provisions in the 2008 FISA Amendments Act (“FAA”) had standing to … Read more »
This afternoon, in connection with FOIA litigation by the ACLU, the Department of Justice released this May 2004 memorandum that I wrote as head of the Office of Legal Counsel about a certain surveillance program. (It also released this memorandum… Read more »
The D.C. Circuit today announced its decision in ACLU v. Dep’t of Defense, a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) case in which the ACLU challenged the government’s withholding of documents relating to the capture, detention, and interrogation of several … Read more »
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Carol Rosenberg wrote about yesterday’s arguments in the 9/11 hearings on defense counsel’s request for access to the Red Cross’s reports of its interviews with the five accused. That’s in the Miami Herald.
Yesterday’s House intelligence committee hearing with top intelligence agency and DOJ officials drew a big crowd and much news: Wired explains the DOJ’s efforts to conceal the NSA’s role… Read more »
