Opinion ID: 4549553
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Procedures on Remand

Text: On remand, the FISA and Fourth Amendment claims, to the extent we have held they are validly pleaded in the complaint and not subject to qualified immunity, should proceed as usual. See supra Part II.B. In light of our conclusion regarding the reach of FISA § 1806(f), the district court should, using § 1806(f)’s ex parte and in camera procedures, review any “materials relating to the surveillance as may be necessary,” 50 U.S.C. § 1806(f), including the evidence over which the Attorney General asserted the state secrets privilege, to determine whether the electronic 48 We note that the judgment bar, 28 U.S.C. § 2676, does not apply to FTCA claims dismissed under the discretionary function exception. See Simmons v. Himmelreich, 136 S. Ct. 1843, 1847–48 (2016). FAZAGA V. WALLS 103 surveillance was lawfully authorized and conducted. That determination will include, to the extent we have concluded that the complaint states a claim regarding each such provision, whether Defendants violated any of the constitutional and statutory provisions asserted by Plaintiffs in their complaint. As permitted by Congress, “[i]n making this determination, the court may disclose to [plaintiffs], under appropriate security procedures and protective orders, portions of the application, order, or other materials relating to the surveillance only where such disclosure is necessary to make an accurate determination of the legality of the surveillance.” Id.49 The Government suggests that Plaintiffs’ religion claims cannot be resolved using the § 1806(f) procedures because, as the district court found, “the central subject matter [of the case] is Operation Flex, a group of counterterrorism investigations that extend well beyond the purview of electronic surveillance.” Although the larger factual context of the case involves more than electronic surveillance, a careful review of the “Claims for Relief” section of the complaint convinces us that all of Plaintiffs’ legal causes of action relate to electronic surveillance, at least for the most part, and in nearly all instances entirely, and thus require a determination as to the lawfulness of the surveillance. Moreover, § 1806(f) provides that the district court may 49 Our circuit has not addressed the applicable standard for reviewing the district court’s decision not to disclose FISA materials. Other circuits, however, have adopted an abuse of discretion standard. See United States v. Ali, 799 F.3d 1008, 1022 (8th Cir. 2015); United States v. El-Mezain, 664 F.3d 467, 567 (5th Cir. 2011); United States v. Damrah, 412 F.3d 618, 624 (6th Cir. 2005); United States v. Badia, 827 F.2d 1458, 1464 (11th Cir. 1987); United States v. Belfield, 692 F.2d 141, 147 (D.C. Cir. 1982). 104 FAZAGA V. WALLS consider “other materials relating to the surveillance as may be necessary to determine whether the surveillance of the aggrieved person was lawfully authorized and conducted,” thereby providing for consideration of all parties’ factual submissions and legal contentions regarding the background of the surveillance. Id. (emphasis added). We did explain in Part I, supra, that not all of the surveillance detailed in the complaint as the basis for Plaintiffs’ legal claims constitutes electronic surveillance as defined by FISA. See id. § 1801(k). Also, two of Plaintiffs’ causes of action can be read to encompass more conduct than just electronic surveillance. Plaintiffs’ RFRA claim, their Fifth Cause of Action, is not limited to electronic surveillance. Plaintiffs broadly allege that “[t]he actions of Defendants substantially burdened [their] exercise of religion.” The FTCA claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, the Eleventh Cause of Action, is also more broadly pleaded. It is far from clear, however, that as actually litigated, either claim will involve more than the electronic surveillance that is otherwise the focus of the lawsuit. 50 At this stage, it appears that, once the district court uses § 1806(f)’s procedures to review the state secrets evidence in camera and ex parte to determine the lawfulness of that surveillance, it could rely on its assessment of the same evidence—taking care to avoid its public disclosure—to 50 For example, whether the official-capacity defendants targeted Plaintiffs for surveillance in violation of the First Amendment will in all likelihood be proven or defended against using the same set of evidence regardless of whether the court considers the claim in terms of electronic surveillance in the mosque prayer hall or conversations to which Monteilh was a party. FAZAGA V. WALLS 105 determine the lawfulness of the surveillance falling outside FISA’s purview, should Plaintiffs wish to proceed with their claims as applied to that set of activity. Once the sensitive information has been considered in camera and ex parte, the small risk of disclosure—a risk Congress thought too small to preclude careful ex parte, in camera consideration by a federal judge—has already been incurred. The scope of the state secrets privilege “is limited by its underlying purpose.” Halpern v. United States, 258 F.2d 36, 44 (2d Cir. 1958) (quoting Roviaro v. United States, 353 U.S. 53, 60 (1957)). It would stretch the privilege beyond its purpose to require the district court to consider the state secrets evidence in camera and ex parte for one claim, but then, when considering another claim, ignore the evidence and dismiss the claim even though it involves the exact same set of parties, facts, and alleged legal violations. Should our prediction of the overlap between the information to be reviewed under the FISA procedures to determine the validity of FISA-covered electronic surveillance and the information pertinent to other aspects of the religion claims prove inaccurate, or should the FISAcovered electronic surveillance drop out of consideration,51 the Government is free to interpose a specifically tailored, properly raised state secrets privilege defense. Should the Government do so, at that point the district court should consider anew whether “simply excluding or otherwise walling off the privileged information may suffice to protect the state secrets,” Jeppesen, 614 F.3d at 1082, or whether dismissal is required because “the privilege deprives the defendant[s] of information that would otherwise give the 51 As could happen if, for instance, Plaintiffs are unable to substantiate their factual allegations as to the occurrence of the surveillance. 106 FAZAGA V. WALLS defendant[s] a valid defense to the claim[s],” id. at 1083 (quoting Kasza, 133 F.3d at 1166), or because the privileged and nonprivileged evidence are “inseparable” such that “litigating the case to a judgment on the merits would present an unacceptable risk of disclosing state secrets,” id. Because Jeppesen did not define “valid defense,” we briefly address its meaning, so as to provide guidance to the district court on remand and to future courts in our circuit addressing the implications of the Government’s invocation of the state secrets privilege. The most useful discussion of the meaning of “valid defense” in the state secrets context is in the D.C. Circuit’s decision in In re Sealed Case, 494 F.3d 139, cited by Jeppensen, 614 F.3d at 1083. We find the D.C. Circuit’s definition and reasoning persuasive, and so adopt it. Critically, In re Sealed Case explained that “[a] ‘valid defense’ . . . is meritorious and not merely plausible and would require judgment for the defendant.” 494 F.3d at 149. The state secrets privilege does not require “dismissal of a complaint for any plausible or colorable defense.” Id. at 150. Otherwise, “virtually every case in which the United States successfully invokes the state secrets privilege would need to be dismissed.” Id. Such an approach would constitute judicial abdication from the responsibility to decide cases on the basis of evidence “in favor of a system of conjecture.” Id. And the Supreme Court has cautioned against “precluding review of constitutional claims” and “broadly interpreting evidentiary privileges.” Id. at 151 (first citing Webster v. Doe, 486 U.S. 592, 603–04 (1988), and then citing United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683, 710 (1974)). “[A]llowing the mere prospect of a privilege defense,” without more, “to thwart a citizen’s efforts to vindicate his or her constitutional rights would run FAZAGA V. WALLS 107 afoul” of those cautions. Id. Thus, where the government contends that dismissal is required because the state secrets privilege inhibits it from presenting a valid defense, the district court may properly dismiss the complaint only if it conducts an “appropriately tailored in camera review of the privileged record,” id., and determines that defendants have a legally meritorious defense that prevents recovery by the plaintiffs, id. at 149 & n.4.