Annie Youderian reports that plaintiffs in a case challenging NSA’s wiretapping program have filed a response to the government’s motion to dismiss the case on “state secrets” and “national security” grounds. The case is Shubert v. Obama and Judge Vaughn Walker is the presiding judge.
The plaintiffs’ 24-page response can be found here (pdf).
A few snippets from the response, via Courthouse News:
“In defendants’ view, any illegal conduct, any unconstitutional conduct – no matter how many people if affects, no matter how violative it is of fundamental rights – cannot be stopped, or even revealed, so long as revelation of the conduct might harm national security,” according to the memo filed in San Francisco Federal Court (original emphasis). “That is not, and cannot be, the law.”
The plaintiffs rejected the government’s claim to sovereign immunity under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as a “rehash of arguments already rejected by the Court.”