Down the rabbit hole. Not only are there secret laws, but now courts are being made to interpret secret laws they aren't permitted to see. Or rule based on evidence they aren't permitted to see:
> The extraordinary limitations in place for the prosecution of Shamai Leibowitz, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison for disseminating classified information, meant that even the judge sentencing him did not know what he was supposed to have leaked. "All I know is that it's a serious case," Judge Alexander Williams said last year. "I don't know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea."
Secret laws violate Due Process according to our own previous interpretations. They were derided as the hallmark of totalitarian regimes, the kind of thing the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries did. NOT the United States, with its much-vaunted Constitution.
Well, it turns out that if the people in power want to shred your civil rights, they WILL do so. At most you can ask them to pretty please respect your Constitutional rights, and then they'll say no. It doesn't matter that their behavior is illegal because nobody can make them comply. "Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules..."
"The President, when using military force against American citizens on U.S. soil, is ”free from the constraints” not only of the Fourth Amendment, but also of other core guarantees of the Bill of Rights — including First Amendment liberties, Due Process rights, and the takings clause"
(Note it's a long article and you have to click to "Continue Reading")
The big question - how did the judge know that what was divulged was actually consequential?
It can't be something that could just have sensitive parts redacted, or even something that could be described (i.e. the blueprints for a new weapon, a list of secret agent identities, or an analysis of likely targets).
It must be information thats mere existence is damaging, like "a video of our troops gunning down innocent civillians".
OK, in this case it was more benign - probably something about the US tapping into Israeli communications. But still, if they've done nothing wrong, what do they have to hide?
> The extraordinary limitations in place for the prosecution of Shamai Leibowitz, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison for disseminating classified information, meant that even the judge sentencing him did not know what he was supposed to have leaked. "All I know is that it's a serious case," Judge Alexander Williams said last year. "I don't know what was divulged other than some documents, and how it compromised things, I have no idea."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/secret-tria...
Secret laws violate Due Process according to our own previous interpretations. They were derided as the hallmark of totalitarian regimes, the kind of thing the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries did. NOT the United States, with its much-vaunted Constitution.
Well, it turns out that if the people in power want to shred your civil rights, they WILL do so. At most you can ask them to pretty please respect your Constitutional rights, and then they'll say no. It doesn't matter that their behavior is illegal because nobody can make them comply. "Golden Rule: He who has the gold makes the rules..."
If you really want to be concerned, check out this Glenn Greenwald article: http://politics.salon.com/2009/03/03/yoo_5/
"The President, when using military force against American citizens on U.S. soil, is ”free from the constraints” not only of the Fourth Amendment, but also of other core guarantees of the Bill of Rights — including First Amendment liberties, Due Process rights, and the takings clause"
(Note it's a long article and you have to click to "Continue Reading")