[lbo-talk] The state secrets doctrine swallows the world

[Jordan Hayes]

> The Supreme Court created the doctrine in a 1953 decision, United
> States v. Reynolds, which began as a lawsuit by survivors of three
> civilians who had died in the crash of a military aircraft. In
> pretrial discovery, the plaintiffs sought the official accident
> report.
>
> But the government, asserting that the report included information
> about the planes secret mission and the equipment that it was
> testing, refused to reveal it. The Supreme Court upheld the
> government, ruling that evidence should not be disclosed when there
> is a reasonable danger that compulsion of the evidence will expose
> military matters which, in the interest of national security, should
> not be divulged.

Funny that they didn't mention that in 2000 the accident report was 
declassified and was shown to include no information that had anything 
to do with national security matters; it did however show negligence on 
the part of the Air Force.

More here ...

http://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2003/03/iaf031403.html

/jordan