This is fairly amazing: Justice Dept. snubs federal judge's ruling.
In a parting shot, the Bush administration's Justice Department shrugged off a San Francisco federal judge's order to make a classified document available to lawyers for an Islamic group challenging the legality of the outgoing president's secret wiretapping program.
National security officials, not judges, must decide whether private citizens – even those with security clearances – are entitled to see classified material, Justice Department lawyers said in a filing Monday night.
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At the heart of the case is a document that purportedly showed the government monitored Al-Haramain's overseas calls in 2004 before classifying it as a terrorist group. The National Security Agency accidentally sent a copy to Al-Haramain in 2005, but the Islamic group, a charity that has since ceased operations, returned the document at the agency's request and is barred from revealing its contents.
Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker ruled Jan. 5 that Al-Haramain could proceed with its case, saying government statements showed that the group had probably been wiretapped.
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Government lawyers asked Walker's permission to appeal his ruling to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco – an appeal they had already filed without his permission Friday – and did not say explicitly that they would withhold the classified document regardless of his orders.
One to watch to see if the new administration takes a different view. The next hearing is tomorrow.
Justice Department resumes are flying around Washington in large concentrations – look for another Useless Airways jet to fall into the potomac after it ingests resumes on takeoff. This story adds more resumes to that bunch.