Obama admin continues use of State Secrets privilege?

On Friday the Obama administration invoked the "state secrets" privilege in a court case alleging the US government had illegally spied on US citizens. Attorney General Eric Holder issued a statement saying, "There is no way for this case to move forward without jeopardizing ongoing intelligence activities that we rely upon to protect the safety of the American people." The referenced case is Shubert v. Bush which directly questions the legality of the NSA program. The plantiffs allege, "the NSA intercepted (and continues to intercept) millions of phone calls and emails of ordinary Americans, with no connection to Al Qaeda, terrorism, or any foreign government" and that "the program monitors millions of calls and emails . . . entirely in the United States . . . without a warrant" (page 4). The main allegation is that offcials responsible for the program violated the fourth amendament and can be held liable under the law for those illegal actions. In a motion to dismiss filed on Friday the DOJ argues, no matter the safeguards taken or documents excluded, "would require the disclosure of highly classified NSA sources and methods about the TSP [Terrorist Surveillance Program] and other NSA activities" (page 8)." The Bush DOJ used the same reasoning when it invoked the "state secrets" privilege. “It is my judgment that sensitive state secrets are so central to the subject matter of the litigation that any attempt to proceed in the case will…risk exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States,” wrote J. Michael McConnell, Bush’s intel chief, in an affidavit filed on May 25, 2007, in the same case. The "state secrets" privilege prevents the courts from ruling whether or not the president has broken the law which immunizes the president from any possible wrongdoing. "The Obama administration is explicitly arguing that the President can break the law with impunity -- can commit crimes -- when it comes to domestic surveillance because our surveillance programs are so secret that national security will be harmed if courts are permitted to adjudicate their legality", Glenn Greenwald writes regarding the Obama administrations use of the "state secrets" privilege. The plantiffs lawyer, Ilann Maazel had this to say regarding the Obama DOJ, “This is Bush 2. It’s Bush the sequel. They [the Obama officials] are saying the same thing: ‘Were not going to tell you what our spying program is—and even if it’s illegal, you can’t stop it.’”