Opinion ID: 174989
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: the state secrets doctrine

Text: [1] The Supreme Court has long recognized that in exceptional circumstances courts must act in the interest of the country’s national security to prevent disclosure of state secrets, even to the point of dismissing a case entirely. See Totten v. United States, 92 U.S. 105, 107 (1876). The contemporary state secrets doctrine encompasses two applications of this principle. One completely bars adjudication of claims premised on state secrets (the “Totten bar”); the other is an evidentiary privilege (“the Reynolds privilege”) that excludes privileged evidence from the case and may result in dismissal of the claims.3 See United States v. Reynolds, 345 U.S. 1 3 Were this a criminal case, the state secrets doctrine would apply more narrowly. See El-Masri v. United States, 479 F.3d 296, 313 n.7 (4th Cir. 13530 MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN (1953). We first address the nature of these applications and then apply them to the facts of this case.
In 1876 the Supreme Court stated “as a general principle[ ] that public policy forbids the maintenance of any suit in a court of justice, the trial of which would inevitably lead to the disclosure of matters which the law itself regards as confidential.” Totten, 92 U.S. at 107 (emphasis added). The Court again invoked the principle in 1953, citing Totten for the proposition that “where the very subject matter of the action” is “a matter of state secret,” an action may be “dismissed on the pleadings without ever reaching the question of evidence” because it is “so obvious that the action should never prevail over the privilege.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 11 n.26. This application of Totten’s general principle — which we refer to as the Totten bar — is “designed not merely to defeat the asserted claims, but to preclude judicial inquiry” entirely. Tenet v. Doe, 544 U.S. 1, 7 n.4 (2005). The Court first applied this bar in Totten itself, where the estate of a Civil War spy sued the United States for breaching an alleged agreement to compensate the spy for his wartime espionage services. Setting forth the “general principle” quoted above, the Court held that the action was barred because it was premised on the existence of a “contract for secret services with the government,” which was “a fact not to be disclosed.” Totten, 92 U.S. at 107. A century later, the Court applied the Totten bar in Weinberger v. Catholic Action of Hawaii/Peace Education Project, 454 U.S. 139, 146-47 (1981). There, the plaintiffs sued under 2007) (“[T]he Executive’s authority to protect [state secrets] is much broader in civil matters than in criminal prosecutions.”); see also Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 12. MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN 13531 the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq., to compel the Navy to prepare an environmental impact statement regarding a military facility where the Navy allegedly proposed to store nuclear weapons. The Court held that the allegations were “beyond judicial scrutiny” because, “[d]ue to national security reasons, . . . the Navy can neither admit nor deny that it proposes to store nuclear weapons at [the facility].” Id. (citing Totten, 92 U.S. at 107). The Court more recently reaffirmed and explained the Totten bar in a case involving two former Cold War spies who accused the CIA of reneging on a commitment to provide financial support in exchange for their espionage services. Relying on “Totten’s core concern” of “preventing the existence of the plaintiffs’ relationship with the Government from being revealed,” the Court held that the action was, like Totten and Weinberger, incapable of judicial review. Tenet, 544 U.S. at 8-10.4 [2] Plaintiffs contend that the Totten bar applies only to a narrow category of cases they say are not implicated here, namely claims premised on a plaintiff’s espionage relationship with the government. We disagree. We read the Court’s discussion of Totten in Reynolds to mean that the Totten bar applies to cases in which “the very subject matter of the action” is “a matter of state secret.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 11 n.26. “[A] contract to perform espionage” is only an example. Id. This conclusion is confirmed by Weinberger, which relied on the Totten bar to hold that a case involving nuclear weapons secrets, and having nothing to do with espionage contracts, was “beyond judicial scrutiny.” See Weinberger, 454 4 Tenet also made clear that application of the Totten bar does not require a formal assertion of the state secrets privilege by the government that meets the procedural requirements explained in Reynolds and discussed below. See Tenet, 544 U.S. at 8-9 (applying the Totten bar); Doe v. Tenet, 329 F.3d 1135, 1151-52 (9th Cir. 2003) (underlying appellate decision noting that no formal assertion had yet been filed). 13532 MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN U.S. at 146-47; see also Tenet, 544 U.S. at 9 (characterizing Weinberger as a case applying the Totten bar). Thus, although the claims in both Totten and Tenet were premised on the existence of espionage agreements, and even though the plaintiffs in both Totten and Tenet were themselves parties to the espionage agreements, the Totten bar rests on a general principle that extends beyond that specific context. We therefore reject plaintiffs’ unduly narrow view of the Totten bar and reaffirm our holding in Al-Haramain that the bar “has evolved into the principle that where the very subject matter of a lawsuit is a matter of state secret, the action must be dismissed without reaching the question of evidence.” AlHaramain, 507 F.3d at 1197. As we explain below, the Totten bar is a narrow rule, but it is not as narrow as plaintiffs contend. We also disagree with plaintiffs’ related contention that the Totten bar cannot apply unless the plaintiff is a party to a secret agreement with the government. The environmental groups and individuals who were the plaintiffs in Weinberger were not parties to agreements with the United States, secret or otherwise. The purpose of the bar, moreover, is to prevent the revelation of state secrets harmful to national security, a concern no less pressing when the plaintiffs are strangers to the espionage agreement that their litigation threatens to reveal. Thus, even if plaintiffs were correct that the Totten bar is limited to cases premised on espionage agreements with the government, we would reject their contention that the bar is necessarily limited to cases in which the plaintiffs are themselves parties to those agreements.
[3] In addition to the Totten bar, the state secrets doctrine encompasses a “privilege against revealing military [or state] secrets, a privilege which is well established in the law of evidence.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 6-7.5 A successful assertion of 5 The two applications of the doctrine remain distinct; Reynolds “in no way signaled [a] retreat from Totten’s broader holding.” Tenet, 544 U.S. at 9. MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN 13533 privilege under Reynolds will remove the privileged evidence from the litigation. Unlike the Totten bar, a valid claim of privilege under Reynolds does not automatically require dismissal of the case. In some instances, however, the assertion of privilege will require dismissal because it will become apparent during the Reynolds analysis that the case cannot proceed without privileged evidence, or that litigating the case to a judgment on the merits would present an unacceptable risk of disclosing state secrets. Reynolds involved a military aircraft carrying secret electronic equipment. Id. at 3. After the plane crashed, the estates of three civilian observers killed in the accident brought tort claims against the government. In discovery, plaintiffs sought production of the Air Force’s official accident investigation report and the statements of three surviving crew members. The Air Force refused to produce the materials, citing the need to protect national security and military secrets. Id. at 4- 5. The district court ordered the government to produce the documents in camera so the court could determine whether they contained privileged material. When the government refused, the court sanctioned the government by establishing the facts on the issue of negligence in plaintiffs’ favor. Id. at 5. The Supreme Court reversed and sustained the government’s claim of privilege because “there was a reasonable danger that the accident investigation report would contain references to the secret electronic equipment which was the primary concern of the mission.” Id. at 10. The Court also provided guidance on how claims of privilege should be analyzed and held that, under the circumstances, the district court should have sustained the privilege without even requiring the government to produce the report for in camera review. Id. at 10-11. The Court did not, however, dismiss the case outright. Rather, given that the secret electronic equipment was unrelated to the cause of the accident, it remanded to the district court, affording plaintiffs the opportunity to try to establish 13534 MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN their claims without the privileged accident report and witness statements. Id. at 11. Analyzing claims under the Reynolds privilege involves three steps: First, we must “ascertain that the procedural requirements for invoking the state secrets privilege have been satisfied.” Second, we must make an indepen- dent determination whether the information is privileged. . . . Finally, “the ultimate question to be resolved is how the matter should proceed in light of the successful privilege claim.” Al-Haramain, 507 F.3d at 1202 (citation omitted) (quoting ElMasri v. United States, 479 F.3d 296, 304 (4th Cir. 2007)). We discuss these steps in turn.
a. Assertion of the privilege. “The privilege belongs to the Government and must be asserted by it; it can neither be claimed nor waived by a private party.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 7 (footnotes omitted). The privilege “is not to be lightly invoked.” Id. This is especially true when, as in this case, the government seeks not merely to preclude the production of particular items of evidence (as in Reynolds) but to obtain dismissal of the entire action. [4] To ensure that the privilege is invoked no more often or extensively than necessary, Reynolds held that “[t]here must be a formal claim of privilege, lodged by the head of the department which has control over the matter, after actual personal consideration by that officer.” Id. at 7-8 (footnote omitted). This certification is fundamental to the government’s claim of privilege. As we have observed in a different context, the decision to invoke the privilege must “be a serious, considered judgment, not simply an administrative formality.” MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN 13535 United States v. W.R. Grace, 526 F.3d 499, 507-08 (9th Cir. 2008) (en banc). The formal claim must reflect the certifying official’s personal judgment; responsibility for this task may not be delegated to lesser-ranked officials. The claim also must be presented in sufficient detail for the court to make an independent determination of the validity of the claim of privilege and the scope of the evidence subject to the privilege. In the present case, General Michael Hayden, then-Director of the CIA, asserted the initial, formal claim of privilege and submitted detailed public and classified declarations. We were informed at oral argument that the current Attorney General, Eric Holder, has also reviewed and approved the ongoing claim of privilege. Although Reynolds does not require review and approval by the Attorney General when a different agency head has control of the matter, such additional review by the executive branch’s chief lawyer is appropriate and to be encouraged. [5] b. Timing. Plaintiffs contend that the government’s assertion of privilege was premature, urging that the Reynolds privilege cannot be raised before an obligation to produce specific evidence subject to a claim of privilege has actually arisen. We disagree. The privilege may be asserted at any time, even at the pleading stage. The privilege indisputably may be raised with respect to discovery requests seeking information the government contends is privileged. Courts have repeatedly sustained claims of privilege under those circumstances. See, e.g., Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 3 (document production requests); Kasza v. Browner, 133 F.3d 1159, 1170 (9th Cir. 1998) (various discovery requests); Halkin v. Helms, 690 F.2d 977, 985-87 (D.C. Cir. 1982) (interrogatories, document production requests and oral depositions). In addition, the government may raise the privilege to prevent the disclosure of privileged information in a responsive pleading, as it did in Ellsberg v. Mitchell, 709 F.2d 51, 54 & n.6 (D.C. Cir. 1983), and Black v. United States, 62 13536 MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN F.3d 1115, 1117-19 (8th Cir. 1995). See Huey v. Honeywell, Inc., 82 F.3d 327, 333 (9th Cir. 1996) (explaining that the contents of an answer may be evidentiary); Lockwood v. Wolf Corp., 629 F.2d 603, 611 (9th Cir. 1980) (holding that admissions in opposing parties’ pleadings are admissible as evidence). We also conclude that the government may assert a Reynolds privilege claim prospectively, even at the pleading stage, rather than waiting for an evidentiary dispute to arise during discovery or trial. See, e.g., El-Masri, 479 F.3d at 308 (“[D]ismissal at the pleading stage is appropriate if state secrets are so central to a proceeding that it cannot be litigated without threatening their disclosure.”); Black, 62 F.3d at 1117-19 (dismissing the action at the pleading stage based on the government’s assertion of privilege over certain categories of information concerning U.S. intelligence operations); Farnsworth Cannon, Inc. v. Grimes, 635 F.2d 268, 281 (4th Cir. 1980) (en banc) (per curiam); see also Al-Haramain, 507 F.3d at 1201 (recognizing that Reynolds may result in dismissal even without “await[ing] preliminary discovery”). In some cases, the court may be able to determine with certainty from the nature of the allegations and the government’s declarations in support of its claim of secrecy that litigation must be limited or cut off in order to protect state secrets, even before any discovery or evidentiary requests have been made. In such cases, waiting for specific evidentiary disputes to arise would be both unnecessary and potentially dangerous. See Sterling v. Tenet, 416 F.3d 338, 344 (4th Cir. 2005) (“Courts are not required to play with fire and chance further disclosure — inadvertent, mistaken, or even intentional — that would defeat the very purpose for which the privilege exists.”). The showing the government must make to prevail on a claim of state secrets privilege may be especially difficult when attempted before any request for specific information or evidence has actually been made, but foreclosing the government from even trying to make that showing would be inconsistent with the need to protect state secrets. MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN 13537 2. The Court’s Independent Evaluation of the Claim of Privilege When the privilege has been properly invoked, “we must make an independent determination whether the information is privileged.” Al-Haramain, 507 F.3d at 1202. The court must sustain a claim of privilege when it is satisfied, “from all the circumstances of the case, that there is a reasonable danger that compulsion of the evidence will expose . . . matters which, in the interest of national security, should not be divulged.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 10. If this standard is met, the evidence is absolutely privileged, irrespective of the plaintiffs’ countervailing need for it. See id. at 11 (“[E]ven the most compelling necessity cannot overcome the claim of privilege if the court is ultimately satisfied that [state] secrets are at stake.”); Halkin, 690 F.2d at 990. This step in the Reynolds analysis “places on the court a special burden to assure itself that an appropriate balance is struck between protecting national security matters and preserving an open court system.” Al-Haramain, 507 F.3d at 1203. In evaluating the need for secrecy, “we acknowledge the need to defer to the Executive on matters of foreign policy and national security and surely cannot legitimately find ourselves second guessing the Executive in this arena.” Id. But “the state secrets doctrine does not represent a surrender of judicial control over access to the courts.” El-Masri, 479 F.3d at 312. Rather, “to ensure that the state secrets privilege is asserted no more frequently and sweepingly than necessary, it is essential that the courts continue critically to examine instances of its invocation.” Ellsberg, 709 F.2d at 58. “We take very seriously our obligation to review the [government’s claims] with a very careful, indeed a skeptical, eye, and not to accept at face value the government’s claim or justification of privilege,” Al-Haramain, 507 F.3d at 1203, though we must “do so without forcing a disclosure of the very thing the privilege is designed to protect . . . . Too much judicial inquiry into the claim of privilege would force disclosure of 13538 MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN the thing the privilege was meant to protect, while a complete abandonment of judicial control would lead to intolerable abuses.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 8. [6] We do not offer a detailed definition of what constitutes a state secret. The Supreme Court in Reynolds found it sufficient to say that the privilege covers “matters which, in the interest of national security, should not be divulged.” Id. at 10. We do note, however, that an executive decision to classify information is insufficient to establish that the information is privileged. See Ellsberg, 709 F.2d at 57 (“[T]he privilege may not be used to shield any material not strictly necessary to prevent injury to national security.”). Although classification may be an indication of the need for secrecy, treating it as conclusive would trivialize the court’s role, which the Supreme Court has clearly admonished “cannot be abdicated to the caprice of executive officers.” Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 9-10. 3. How Should the Matter Proceed? When a court sustains a claim of privilege, it must then resolve “ ‘how the matter should proceed in light of the successful privilege claim.’ ” Al-Haramain, 507 F.3d at 1202 (quoting El-Masri, 479 F.3d at 304). The court must assess whether it is feasible for the litigation to proceed without the protected evidence and, if so, how. When the government successfully invokes the state secrets privilege, “the evidence is completely removed from the case.” Kasza, 133 F.3d at 1166. “ ‘[W]henever possible, sensitive information must be disentangled from nonsensitive information to allow for the release of the latter.’ ” Id. (quoting Ellsberg, 709 F.2d at 57). However, there will be occasions when, as a practical matter, secret and nonsecret information cannot be separated. In some cases, therefore, “it is appropriate that the courts restrict the parties’ access not only to evidence which itself risks the disclosure of a state MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN 13539 secret, but also those pieces of evidence or areas of questioning which press so closely upon highly sensitive material that they create a high risk of inadvertent or indirect disclosures.” Bareford v. Gen. Dynamics Corp., 973 F.2d 1138, 1143-44 (5th Cir. 1992); see also Kasza, 133 F.3d at 1166 (“[I]f seemingly innocuous information is part of a . . . mosaic, the state secrets privilege may be invoked to bar its disclosure and the court cannot order the government to disentangle this information from other [i.e., secret] information.”). Ordinarily, simply excluding or otherwise walling off the privileged information may suffice to protect the state secrets and “ ‘the case will proceed accordingly, with no consequences save those resulting from the loss of evidence.’ ” AlHaramain, 507 F.3d at 1204 (quoting Ellsberg, 709 F.2d at 64); see, e.g., Webster v. Doe, 486 U.S. 592, 604-05 (1988) (permitting case to continue without privileged evidence); Reynolds, 345 U.S. at 11-12 (same). In some instances, however, application of the privilege may require dismissal of the action. When this point is reached, the Reynolds privilege converges with the Totten bar, because both require dismissal. There are three circumstances when the Reynolds privilege would justify terminating a case. First, if “the plaintiff cannot prove the prima facie elements of her claim with nonprivileged evidence, then the court may dismiss her claim as it would with any plaintiff who cannot prove her case.” Kasza, 133 F.3d at 1166; see also Ellsberg, 709 F.2d at 65. Second, “ ‘if the privilege deprives the defendant of information that would otherwise give the defendant a valid defense to the claim, then the court may grant summary judgment to the defendant.’ ” Kasza, 133 F.3d at 1166 (quoting Bareford, 973 F.2d at 1141); accord In re Sealed Case, 494 F.3d 139, 153 (D.C. Cir. 2007); see also, e.g., Tenenbaum v. Simonini, 372 F.3d 776, 777 (6th Cir. 2004). [7] Third, and relevant here, even if the claims and defenses might theoretically be established without relying on 13540 MOHAMED v. JEPPESEN DATAPLAN privileged evidence, it may be impossible to proceed with the litigation because — privileged evidence being inseparable from nonprivileged information that will be necessary to the claims or defenses — litigating the case to a judgment on the merits would present an unacceptable risk of disclosing state secrets. See, e.g., In re Sealed Case, 494 F.3d at 153 (“If the district court determines that the subject matter of a case is so sensitive that there is no way it can be litigated without risking national secrets, then the case must be dismissed.”); ElMasri, 479 F.3d at 308 (“[A] proceeding in which the state secrets privilege is successfully interposed must be dismissed if the circumstances make clear that privileged information will be so central to the litigation that any attempt to proceed will threaten that information’s disclosure.”); Bareford, 973 F.2d at 1144 (“We are compelled to conclude that the trial of this case would inevitably lead to a significant risk that highly sensitive information concerning this defense system would be disclosed.”); Fitzgerald v. Penthouse Int’l, Ltd., 776 F.2d 1236, 1241-42 (4th Cir. 1985) (“[I]n some circumstances sensitive military secrets will be so central to the subject matter of the litigation that any attempt to proceed will threaten disclosure of the privileged matters.”); Farnsworth Cannon, 635 F.2d at 281 (dismissing the action at the outset because “any attempt on the part of the plaintiff to establish a prima facie case would so threaten disclosure of state secrets that the overriding interest of the United States and the preservation of its state secrets precludes any further attempt to pursue this litigation”); id. at 279-80 (Phillips, J., specially concurring