In this post-9/11 era, it seems that nothing is sacred anymore, not even the concept of attorney-client privilege.
On October 4, the U.S. Supreme Court said that it would not hear the case of Wilner v. National Security Agency (NSA) regarding disclosure of information related to any warrantless wiretapping of privileged attorney-client conversations regarding Guantanamo detainees.
According to the Center for Constitutional Rights, which brought the case along with other Gitmo attorneys, "[t]he lawsuit argued that the Executive Branch must disclose whether or not it has records related to the wiretapping of privileged attorney-client conversations without a warrant. Lawyers for the Guantanamo detainees fit the officially acknowledged profile of those subject to surveillance under the former administration’s program, and the Bush administration argued in the past that the Executive Branch has a right to target them."
Not only will the government not turn over any pertinent records (Freedom of Information Act be damned), it will not say whether any such records even exist!
This October 4 decision allows to stand a December 2009 ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of government secrecy.
Land of the free, my ass. Big Brother just keeps growing bigger. And SCOTUS just keeps leaning more and more to the right. Coincidence?
>> Read more about Wilner v. NSA.
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