Justice Department Unveils New Policy on State Secrets
By AAN Staff
september 24, 2009 11:43 am
Attorney General Eric Holder has laid out out
new procedures that will "provide greater accountability and ensure the state secrets privilege is invoked only when necessary and in the narrowest way possible." Open government advocates like OMB Watch and Sen. Patrick Leahy have "expressed cautious optimism" about the policy,
the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press reports.
Secrecy News also has a mixed reaction, saying the policy "includes procedural and substantive changes to current practice," but "it reserves decisions over the exercise of the privilege to the executive branch, and it appears to have garbled its treatment of judicial review."