April 29, 2009 5:13PM # State Secrets Case Proceeds By [David Rittgers](https://www.cato.org/people/david-rittgers) --- SHARE A three-judge panel from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [ruled](http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/jeppesendecision.pdf) yesterday that the State Secrets Privilege, a doctrine barring the introduction of sensitive information as evidence, did not bar a suit by former CIA detainees. (H/T [SCOTUSBlog](http://www.scotusblog.com/wp/state-secrets-doctrine-narrowed/#more-9361)) The plaintiffs allege that the defendant, a contract airline associated with the extraordinary rendition program, knowingly flew them to countries where they would be tortured. The panel held that individual pieces of evidence may be subject to the Privilege, but a suit could not be entirely barred by a government assertion that sensitive information could be revealed. This presents a split in federal circuit rulings on the State Secrets Privilege. The Fourth Circuit [held](http://pacer.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinion.pdf/061667.P.pdf) that the Privilege could bar a civil suit entirely. This expansion of the State Secrets Privilege, started under Bush and continued under Obama, is a departure from the fact-specific evaluation described by the Supreme Court in [*U.S. v. Reynolds*](http://supreme.justia.com/us/345/1/case.html). “Judicial control over the evidence in a case cannot be abdicated to the caprice of executive officers.” As my colleague [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/lynch.html) has [written](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3145) before, the State Secrets Privilege often has little to do with keeping secrets and a lot to do with avoiding liability. All that remains to be seen is whether the Obama administration will appeal the ruling, either to an *en banc* rehearing by the full Ninth Circuit or at the Supreme Court. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).