Obama Dares Judge to Order Release Of NSA Spy Document

[usregimechange]

SAN FRANCISCO — Setting the stage for a constitutional showdown, the Obama administration dared a federal judge here late Friday to do what no judge has yet done: disclose classified data the government has declared a national security state secret.

The administration urged U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to order such a disclosure in a 3-year-old lawsuit weighing whether a sitting U.S. president may bypass Congress and adopt a program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants. Such an order, the administration said, could halt three years of convoluted litigation and force the appellate courts to weigh in on the hotly contested issue.

The classified data in question shows that telephone calls by two American lawyers for a now-defunct Saudi charity were intercepted by the government without warrants in 2004. Without the classified documents admitted as evidence in the case, the aggrieved lawyers for the al-Haramain charity, which the Bush administration designated as a terror group, cannot establish a legal basis to earn them a day in court...

So in a court filing late Friday, the Obama administration again refused to cooperate in creating a protective order. Instead, the administration challenged Walker to go beyond a protective order and actually demand disclosure of the records.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/nsa/


I don't understand the Obama administration refuses to cooperate resulting in no disclosures but asks a judge to force them to do what they are unwilling to do? Am I reading this incorrectly?

[HopeOverFear]

1. He really is all about the rule of law it seems

making sure the courts make these decisions and not the executive branch.

[Kdillard]

2. I am getting that too. Interesting.

[usregimechange]

3. A President who favors a strong judiciary?

[Kdillard]

4. Yeah we haven't had that in a good while.

[HopeOverFear]

5. so it seems

[Rosa Luxemburg]

6. why is this a national security problem?