Thank you for being an original co-sponsor of S.417, the State Secrets
Protection Act.  As you know, in recent arguments before the US Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Obama government has echoed the Bush
government's position that Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan should be dismissed
because, they claim, the merits of the case itself could not be argued without
revealing state secrets.

Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan is an important case not only for the plaintiffs
who claim that Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan violated the Alien Tort
Statute by providing logistical support for the plaintiffs' kidnapping and
torture during an "extraordinary rendition" process, but also for the American
principle of limited executive power.  Whatever the outcome, it is a case that
deserves to be heard.

In an ostensibly open and democratic society, the state secrets privilege
should be applied sparingly if at all.  Though it might be invoked to suppress
particular evidence within a case, the state-secrets privilege ought never to
be the basis for dismissal of an entire case.  By requiring that courts and
litigants construct non-privileged versions of the evidence, as alternatives to
the dismissal of entire cases when the state-secrets privilege is invoked, the
State Secrets Protection Act would rein in the Obama government's attempt to
continue the Bush government's undue executive influence on the judicial
process.  Thank you so much for introducing this important bill.