Secrecy
The 桃子视频works in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.
The Latest
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桃子视频Asks Supreme Court to Hear Guant谩namo Attorney鈥檚 Lawsuit Challenging CIA鈥檚 Excessive Secrecy
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Appeals Court Allows CIA to Continue Abusing Glomar Responses to Evade Accountability
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The CIA's Long and Dangerous History of Refusing to Answer Absurdly Obvious Questions
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Federal Court Argument on CIA鈥檚 Refusal to Confirm or Deny Records About Agency鈥檚 鈥淥perational Control鈥� Over Camp VII at Guant谩namo
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What's at Stake
Government secrecy is at odds with basic democratic principles. As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 1936, 鈥渁n informed public is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment.鈥�
Yet today, much of our government鈥檚 business is conducted in secret. There are a multitude of secret agencies, secret committees of Congress, a secret court, and even secret laws. This sprawling鈥攁nd growing鈥攕ecret establishment presents an active threat to individual liberty and undermines the very notion of government of, by, and for the people.
Nowhere is government secrecy more out of control than in the national security context.听For almost a decade, the American public has been told time and time again that some of our government鈥檚 most controversial national security policies and programs are聽鈥渟ecret.鈥澛燭he government has tried to keep us in the dark about the fact that it was secretly spying on all Americans, secretly torturing people, and secretly killing its own citizens on the basis of its secret interpretations of the law.听
The 桃子视频fights for a democracy that is accountable to the public, the courts, and Congress.听Secrecy endangers us all, eroding the checks and balances that a healthy democracy requires.听As the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit put it in an 桃子视频challenge to secret court hearings, 鈥淒emocracies die behind closed doors.鈥�
The 桃子视频regularly files Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits to challenge government secrecy around some of the most important national security questions of our time. A few notable examples include lawsuits:
- the government release information relating to the legal and factual basis for its use of predator drones to conduct "targeted killings" overseas.
- information about the targeted killings of three U.S. citizens in Yemen in 2011.听
- to the abuse and torture of prisoners in U.S. detention centers overseas. Since that suit was filed in 2003, more than 10,000 pages of government documents have been released. They are easily viewed and searched in the ACLU's .听
- the full Senate torture report, the executive summary of which was released in 2014.听
- information about the TSA's "behavioral detection" program.
- the government release information about its use and interpretation of Patriot Act Section 215.
Government secrecy is at odds with basic democratic principles. As the U.S. Supreme Court recognized in 1936, 鈥渁n informed public is the most potent of all restraints upon misgovernment.鈥�
Yet today, much of our government鈥檚 business is conducted in secret. There are a multitude of secret agencies, secret committees of Congress, a secret court, and even secret laws. This sprawling鈥攁nd growing鈥攕ecret establishment presents an active threat to individual liberty and undermines the very notion of government of, by, and for the people.
Nowhere is government secrecy more out of control than in the national security context.听For almost a decade, the American public has been told time and time again that some of our government鈥檚 most controversial national security policies and programs are聽鈥渟ecret.鈥澛燭he government has tried to keep us in the dark about the fact that it was secretly spying on all Americans, secretly torturing people, and secretly killing its own citizens on the basis of its secret interpretations of the law.听
The 桃子视频fights for a democracy that is accountable to the public, the courts, and Congress.听Secrecy endangers us all, eroding the checks and balances that a healthy democracy requires.听As the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit put it in an 桃子视频challenge to secret court hearings, 鈥淒emocracies die behind closed doors.鈥�
The 桃子视频regularly files Freedom of Information Act requests and lawsuits to challenge government secrecy around some of the most important national security questions of our time. A few notable examples include lawsuits:
- the government release information relating to the legal and factual basis for its use of predator drones to conduct "targeted killings" overseas.
- information about the targeted killings of three U.S. citizens in Yemen in 2011.听
- to the abuse and torture of prisoners in U.S. detention centers overseas. Since that suit was filed in 2003, more than 10,000 pages of government documents have been released. They are easily viewed and searched in the ACLU's .听
- the full Senate torture report, the executive summary of which was released in 2014.听
- information about the TSA's "behavioral detection" program.
- the government release information about its use and interpretation of Patriot Act Section 215.