DOJ lawyer Catherine Dorsey: “We don’t think there is a First Amendment right to classified documents” — she was seeking to suppress evidence of force-feeding torture in Gitmo.
She was speaking on behalf of the “most transparent administration in history (TM).”
The judges at the D.C. Court of Appeals appeared skeptical. Chief Judge Merrick Garland characterized the government’s position as tantamount to claiming the court “has absolutely no authority” to unseal evidence even if it’s clear the government’s bid to keep it secret is based on “irrationality” or that it’s “hiding something.”
“That is our position,” Dorsey agreed.
U.S. Government: We Can Classify Anything and Judges Can’t Stop Us [Sam Sacks/The Intercept]
(Image: Bens Middlefinger,
Randy Scribner Jr., CC-BY)