Obama Holds On to State Secrets Doctrine

An interesting topic for the upcoming Truth Commission discussion; Obama's administration has continued the Bush administration practice of invoking "state secrets" to shut down court cases on contentious human rights and surveillance cases. While Obama promised to change this doctrine during his campaign, a Bush administration lawyer notes in this piece that the new Justice Department has to take a fairly expansive view of state secrets if they want to make such claims at all. Thus, Obama's hands are tied to some extent.

I am inclined to think the risks of revealing secret information are less than the ultimate damage to the government's credibility at home and abroad if these legal battles go unresolved and the new administration is seen as covering up for torture. But who knows? Voters can be quick to forget prior overreaching of power, and if Obama continues making concessions on specifics like Guantanamo Bay, the broader issue of executive power may pass scrutiny. It would certainly be a remarkable legacy of the Bush administration.